Take Two translates the day’s headlines for Southern California, making sense of the news and cultural events that affect our lives. Produced by Southern California Public Radio and broadcast from October 2012 – June 2021. Hosted by A Martinez.
California would be the sixth-largest world economy if it broke off into its own nation.
Could our state make it on its own if it didn't rely on money from D.C.?
It might have to if President Trump follows through on stripping federal funds from the whole state.
In a recent interview with Fox News, he complained about the dozens of California cities that are sanctuary cities, which means they don't work with federal officials to track down and prosecute undocumented immigrants.
"California in many ways is out of control, as you know," he said. "I don't want to defund anyone. I want to give them the money they need to properly operate as a city or state. If they're going to have sanctuary cities, we may have to do that. Certainly that would be a weapon."
Now, legally, he can only cut off funds to state programs connected to the issue at hand.
In this case, if local law enforcement doesn't cooperate with the feds on immigration, then the feds can only hold back money meant for local law enforcement.
But let's say we take Trump at his word – to completely pull federal funding from California.
Mathematically, it wouldn't be so bad if we had to pay our own bills.
In 2015, Californians sent the IRS a grand total of $405.8 billion.
That same year, Uncle Sam spent some money in the state to pay for things like upkeeping roads, keeping us healthy through Medi-Cal and Medicare, and maintaining national parks like Yosemite.
But the cash we got is short of what we gave.
The state's Legislative Analyst's Office says we took in $368 billion through federal spending.
That means 91 cents of every dollar you sent to the federal government circled back home.
So if California kept money that taxpayers normally send to Washington, it doesn't look bad on paper.
California Democratic leaders responded Monday to President Trump's threat of defunding the state, AP reported:
"If this is what Donald Trump thinks is 'out of control,' I'd suggest other states should be more like us," said Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon, D-Paramount.
California Senate President Pro Tem Kevin de Leon said state residents contribute more to federal coffers than their state gets in return, and any sanctions against California would ripple nationwide.
"President Trump's threat to weaponize federal funding is not only unconstitutional but emblematic of the cruelty he seeks to impose on our most vulnerable communities," de Leon said.
Rendon, de Leon and other Democratic leaders in California have fiercely criticized Trump and vowed to fight his policies through the Legislature and in court.