Subject: States Do Have Power
And in the period 2021-2025, Republicans proved that in Florida and Texas.

This simply takes a cue from them and builds on it.

Courts can issue orders, but court orders are just paper without enforcement mechanisms. States need leverage, not just legal arguments.

The anti-commandeering doctrine, confirmed in Printz v. United States, holds that the federal government cannot force states to administer federal programs. This means States participate in exchange for federal funding. When that funding stops illegally, the basis for cooperation disappears.

1. Hold Federal Tax Payments in Escrow

States and cities process billions in federal tax payments from their employees. These payments flow to Washington automatically, but automatic is not mandatory. States could hold these funds until the federal government certifies it has met its own obligations. No constitutional provision requires states to immediately forward federal taxes while waiting months for entitled federal payments. Make this an interstate compact for even more power.

2. Charge Federal Facilities Market Rates for Everything

Every military base and federal building depends on state-funded infrastructure. Roads, snow removal, emergency services. States have traditionally absorbed these costs. Tradition is not law. When a military base calls for emergency services, bill them at market rates. The Pentagon's budget assumes free state services. That assumption is optional.

3. Apply Federal Standards to Federal Payments

When states request entitled funds, they face months of documentation requirements and delays. States can apply the same standards to federal tax transfers. Every payment can require comprehensive documentation, multi-level review, accuracy verification. If processing a federal grant takes 18 months, processing federal tax transfers can take 18 months too.

4. Form an Interstate Compact for Fiscal Fairness

The Constitution explicitly allows interstate compacts. Donor states could establish uniform procedures for federal payment processing during funding disputes. Individual states invite retaliation. Ten states acting together change the conversation. New York, Connecticut, New Jersey, California, and Massachusetts synchronizing escrow requirements would create immediate pressure.

5. Convert Every State Service to Fee-for-Service

Road maintenance to federal facilities? Calculate actual costs per mile. Water and sewer connections to federal buildings? Full municipal rates, no subsidies. State police responding to federal property? Invoice for each call. Environmental monitoring around military bases? Hourly billing for state inspectors. The federal government assumes these services are free. They're subsidized and subsidies can end.

These strategies will face constitutional challenges, particularly regarding the Supremacy Clause. But the Supremacy Clause only protects lawful federal action. Withholding congressionally appropriated funds violates the Appropriations Clause and the Impoundment Control Act. States enforcing reciprocal standards are defending the rule of law, not defying it.

Making these things happen will require state legislation. It starts with targeting budget committee chairs who understand state finances and attorneys general who would be defending these measures in court. Contact them directly. Ask why they haven't introduced legislation implementing these strategies.

Share this with policy organizations in donor states. Make "fiscal leverage" something every state official has to address.

Will there be lawsuits? Yes. But litigation with leverage beats litigation without it. When both parties can inflict fiscal pain, they find solutions. When only one can, they don't.

States have accepted a fiction that federal fiscal dominance is constitutionally required. It's not. These strategies are all legal, all constitutional, and all available to states willing to assert their actual authority rather than their assumed subordination.

Defund Fascism.

https://cmarmitage.substack.co...

Albaby- please identify holes in this argument. Thanks