Diplomacy & Crisis News

James Holmes

, South America

History may yet call on Brazil to play its part in South Atlantic or hemispheric defense.

Here's What You Need to Know: The lesson of the nineteenth-century United States for twenty-first-century Brazil is this: holidays don’t last forever. Use them

“We have no concept of war,” confides a strategy professor at the Escola de Guerra Naval, or Brazilian Naval War College, in Rio de Janeiro—my home-away-from-home for part of 2018 and a place that unsucks, as the great Anthony Bourdain might say. Say what? Navies are fighting forces. They exist to duel rival navies. A navy that confronts no prospect of war is a force without purpose or direction. It’s rudderless.

Right?

Well, not exactly. The Marinha do Brasil, or Brazilian Navy, has more work to do than it can do. It is far from purposeless. But its work is noncombat work for the most part. That’s because Brazil has the good fortune to inhabit what Pentagon denizens call “permissive,” non-menacing strategic surroundings. The South Atlantic is free of great-power enmity. A friendly superpower navy, the U.S. Navy, furnishes a backstop should things abruptly go awry.

For the time being, anyway. The strategic setting as it exists today governs the service’s outlook. The naval leadership should cultivate what geopolitics maven Robert Kaplan terms “anxious foresight” about the future—and prepare accordingly.

Rather than gird to battle rival navies, the Brazilian Navy has long dedicated itself to constabulary duty. In effect it’s a super empowered coast guard, a combat service whose chief occupations consist of enforcing domestic law, guarding offshore natural resources from poachers, and helping Africans suppress piracy.

Concentrating on police duty makes perfect sense from Brasilia’s standpoint. If battle against high-seas foes appears far-fetched—if a navy has no concept of war but needs none—few governments would waste finite financial, material and human resources on preparing for it. The upshot: the Brazilian Navy dwells in a different strategic and mental universe from the U.S. Navy, and from any sea service that readies itself for war first and executes constabulary missions on a not-to-interfere basis with war preparations.

Countries, institutions and individuals oftentimes inhabit different mental worlds. Analyst Robert Kagan once penned a tract opining that Europeans hailed from Venus while Americans were from Mars. The United States, noted Kagan, spearheaded Europe’s defense throughout the Cold War. Europeans came to believe that security was something others supplied. They even insisted that a world ruled by international law and institutions had arrived. For them martial history had ended. If force no longer had any use, it made sense to disarm. And so they did, more or less—leaving themselves even more reliant on superpower protection.

However congenial the strategic environment appears, inhabitants of the South Atlantic should refuse to succumb to such illusions. History may yet call on Brazil to play its part in South Atlantic or hemispheric defense. It should make itself ready in intellectual and material terms.

The prospect of armed conflict is easy to overlook amid tranquil surroundings. As seagoing constables, Brazilian mariners track down non-state scourges rather than confront hostile armadas. Poachers infesting national fishing grounds constitute a particular irritant. Indeed, Brazil’s last nautical “war” was the “Lobster War” against France in the early 1960s.

The controversy broke out after French fishermen took to scooping up spiny lobsters skittering along the Brazilian continental shelf about one hundred nautical miles offshore. Brasilia mounted a show of naval force off its coasts, and Paris agreed to curtail fishing in this offshore preserve. Yet memories of the Lobster War linger—and color Brazilian maritime strategy half a century hence. They affirm the navy’s constabulary focus.

Brazilian commanders also fret about protecting natural resources underneath the seafloor. Like most coastal states, Brazil now claims an exclusive economic zone (EEZ) reaching two hundred nautical miles off its shorelines. Brasilia recently added a northerly sliver of the continental shelf, which extends still farther out to sea, to what officialdom styles the Amazônia Azul, or “Blue Amazon”—the seaward extension of the Amazon River basin.

The leadership now wants to bump out its EEZ to the south, incorporating even more marine territory into the Blue Amazon. That adds up to a lot of sea space for the Brazilian Navy to patrol. Nor are waterborne challenges all offshore. Indeed, Brazil’s navy looks inward to degree rare among navies. It’s not just a coastal or oceangoing force but a riverine force with distended inland waterways and adjacent shores to oversee. This is no small chore.

Rivers are usually a blessing. Alfred Thayer Mahan touted the Mississippi River and its tributaries for putting the interior of North America in contact with oceanic commerce. Maritime geography made it easy to ship export goods from the continental interior to foreign buyers. But the muddy Mississippi is wide and, in general, friendly to navigation. The Amazon River is no Mississippi. In some places switchbacks are so tortuous that the river is barely navigable, even for experienced riverboat skippers.

Worse, Brazilian seafarers report that the Amazon watercourse has a perverse habit of shifting from year to year. Shapeshifting terrain plays havoc with inland traffic. But because overland transport between coastal Brazil and the interior remains even more tenuous, the navy acts as the government’s humanitarian arm in the backcountry. Naval vessels commonly render medical care, for example. U.S. Navy craft seldom provide such services at home except after natural disasters—after a Hurricane Katrina or Maria. For the Marinha it’s a matter of routine.

Nor do the challenges stop with the EEZ, continental shelf, and internal waters. Despite their homeward mandate, Brazilian sailors do look beyond their maritime near abroad. But they defy expectations even when they do. Look at the map. Sea lanes transiting the region flow mainly north-south. Merchantmen and warships steam hither and yon between Atlantic seaports and the Pacific or Indian oceans, rounding Cape Horn or the Cape of Good Hope along their way.

By contrast, Brazilians’ mental map of the South Atlantic has an east-west orientation to it. They gaze mainly eastward toward Africa, where pirates prey on shipping in the Gulf of Guinea. The horizontal axis to Brazilian strategy is at right-angles to vertical shipping patterns.

It’s doubtful the contagion of maritime brigandage will spread westward across the Atlantic Ocean to afflict South America. So why—when the navy has plenty to do at home—would Brasilia go to the effort of attacking piracy at its source, and far from Brazilian coastlines? Multiple motives drive Brazil, like all societies. Accepting partial custodianship of the regional maritime order lets the Brazilian Navy portray itself as a South Atlantic force for good while preventing corsairs from distorting regional shipping lanes—and perhaps driving insurance rates so high that shipping firms reroute commercial traffic around the area.

The business of seagoing peoples is business. Suppressing lawlessness that imperils trade, commerce, and resource extraction represents sound strategic logic and helps Brasilia burnish its image as a responsible steward of South Atlantic security. What’s not to like?

Naval officialdom has made some peculiar fleet-design choices as it strives to discharge its mandate to enforce sovereignty, render social services and quash piracy. To name one, the Marinha and its political masters consider aircraft carriers a cornerstone of maritime strategy. Brasilia recently decommissioned its French-built flattop São Paulo, only to strike a bargain with British leaders to replace it with the retired amphibious carrier HMS Ocean.

Brazilian naval commanders regard flattops not as capital ships or platforms for storming hostile beaches, but as roving airfields for policing the Blue Amazon. They aren’t high-value units in carrier or amphibious expeditionary groups. They roam the sea without the familiar retinue of cruisers, destroyers, and submarines to ward off an aerial, surface, or subsurface attack. Corvettes and kindred small combatants comprise the bulk of the surface fleet.

In short, surface groups in the South Atlantic are different creatures from those in the Western Pacific or Mediterranean Sea. It’s jarring for those of us representing battle-minded navies to see pictures of a Brazilian flattop cruising with few if any sentry vessels alongside to stand guard. That’s a fleet begging to get pummeled!

Except it’s not. Thankfully.

Don’t get me wrong: aircraft carriers of humble scale do make sense for constabulary work. In fact, a flotilla of winsome “sea-control ships” resembling those envisaged for the U.S. Navy in the 1970s would fit the Marinha do Brasil’s peacetime needs better than the two fifty-thousand-ton behemoths naval proponents reportedly covet. In all likelihood a clutch of helicopters or jump jets flying from multiple light carriers dispersed offshore would provide better geographic coverage than would a bigger air wing operating from a single flight deck. After all, even the largest flight deck can only be in one place at a time.

And if Brasilia sees no need to fight for mastery of the South Atlantic, then it has little need for flattops larger than World War II fleet carriers. Why invest heavily in capital ships when lesser ones will do?

Another idiosyncrasy: the naval leadership wants a flotilla of nuclear-powered attack subs (SSNs). Again, though, it wants them for reasons alien to the U.S. Navy. (Brazil’s navy will be lucky to get so much as one attack boat any time soon. Scandal has engulfed the Brazilian presidency, throttled the nation’s GDP, and forced drastic cuts to the defense budget. Check out Netflix for a fictionalized account of this sorry affair that Brazilians are watching.)

There are advantages to such an acquisition. Nuclear propulsion grants SSNs virtually boundless seakeeping ability, letting them prowl their patrol grounds for months at a time. Long on-station times explain SSNs’ allure with Brazilian navalists. However, it remains unclear precisely what they expect a nuclear-attack boat to do after detecting unlawful fishing, drilling, or undersea mining. If patrol craft are constables who tote nightsticks, then SSNs are infantrymen who brandish battle-axes meant to split skulls.

Clobbering a fishing boat with torpedoes and anti-ship missiles, typical submarine armament, would amount to overkill—and pricey overkill at that.

Bottom line, Brazil’s navy craves ships normally meant for conventional naval warfare—but it craves them for eccentric reasons. In one sense the Marinha resembles the U.S. Navy after World War I, which is when imperial Germany had been vanquished but no competitor had yet taken its place as the focal point of U.S. naval strategy. In 1919 Captain Harry Yarnell quipped that trying to design a fleet with no enemy in sight is like forging a machine tool without knowing whether its users intend to manufacture hairpins or locomotives.

In other words, strategic drift prevails when a service has no foe to impart direction to force design and operations. But there is an upside to Brazilians’ offbeat fascination with high-end carriers and subs: if the navy ever needs a concept of war, then some of the platforms needed to put a warlike concept into practice will already reside in the inventory. The navy can and should experiment with them, honing battle doctrine and skill lest more forbidding times come.

As they may. Perpetual peace has not come to the South Atlantic any more than it came to Europe under U.S. military protection. In reality Brazil is enjoying a holiday from history courtesy of the U.S. Navy—a silent partner in its maritime defense.

And there’s justice to that: the United States free-rode on maritime security furnished by Great Britain’s Royal Navy for most of the nineteenth century, and benefited immensely from the respite from great-power rivalry. The republic was able to subdue a continent, fight its civil war, and foster an industrial revolution precisely because British naval mastery staved off predatory empires—sparing Washington from fielding a pricey navy or army to defend its shores and interests.

Resources that might have gone into a large standing military went to economic development, or stayed in private hands. Industry flourished.

But the lesson of the nineteenth-century United States for twenty-first-century Brazil is this: holidays don’t last forever. Use them well.

British maritime supremacy came under duress toward the nineteenth century’s end. The advent of new industrial powers—Germany, Japan, the United States—cut into Britain’s material advantage. And when one of those competitors, imperial Germany, decided to construct a great battle fleet hard by the British Isles, the leadership in London felt compelled to being warships home from the Far East and Western Hemisphere.

The Americas’ external protector started withdrawing. American republics had to provide for their own defense, or go undefended.

Starting in the 1880s, happily, the United States had laid the keels for its first steam-propelled, armored, big-gun fleet. The U.S. Navy took up the burden of maritime security as the Royal Navy drew down its American Station and went home to run its arms race against Germany. By the dawn of the twentieth century Washington had built up a surplus of naval might that enabled it to guarantee nautical freedom in the Western Hemisphere.

It could do all this because London had given it a holiday from history.

But the surplus of U.S. sea power could prove perishable, like all things. China’s rise, Russian troublemaking, and sundry Eurasian challenges now beckon U.S. attention, policy energy, and martial resources to distant waters and shores. Whereas German sea power pulled the Royal Navy home, great-power mischief-making siphons U.S. naval power away from home. Eurasian adventures could expose the Americas to fresh dangers in their naval protector’s absence.

So, Brazil, by all means experiment with aircraft carriers and nuclear-powered subs. You may need them—along with a concept of how to use them in combat. Hemispheric defense could use a joint custodian under all circumstances, not just congenial ones.

Enjoy Venus—but spend some time on Mars.

James Holmes is J. C. Wylie Chair of Maritime Strategy at the Naval War College and coauthor of Red Star over the Pacific. The views voiced here are his alone.

This article first appeared in May 2018 and is being reprinted due to reader interest.

Image: Flickr.

Ethen Kim Lieser

economy, Americas

Despite the fact that the White House and Congress haven’t hinted at any concrete steps toward making another round of stimulus checks a reality, several states have already sent out or are in the process of issuing direct cash payments to their residents.

Here's What You Need to Remember: In Florida, lawmakers are using federal funds from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan to deliver $1,000 stimulus checks to teachers and educators in the state. Georgia, Michigan, and Tennessee also are giving out cash payments to those working in schools.  

The highly transmissible Delta variant has spread to more than one hundred forty countries and has continued its relentless trek across the United States. It now represents more than 95 percent of all coronavirus cases.  

This precarious situation has understandably made millions of still cash-strapped Americans uneasy and has only made the calls for a fourth or even a fifth round of stimulus checks even louder.  

One of the more highly publicized and passionate calls is being orchestrated by a Change.org petition, which has already garnered more than 2.8 million signatures, just two hundred thousand short of its goal.  

“I’m calling on Congress to support families with a $2,000 payment for adults and a $1,000 payment for kids immediately, and continuing regular checks for the duration of the crisis,” states the petition, which was started by a Colorado restaurant owner. 

Despite the fact that the White House and Congress haven’t hinted at any concrete steps toward making another round of stimulus checks a reality, several states have already sent out or are in the process of issuing direct cash payments to their residents. Here’s a quick rundown.  

Maryland 

Gov. Larry Hogan (R) signed the $1 billion RELIEF Act of 2021 in February, which approved a $500 stimulus check to families and $300 to individuals who filed for the Earned Income Tax Credit. 

California 

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the 2021 California Comeback Plan last month that included $8.1 billion for stimulus payments. Taxpayers earning between $30,000 and $75,000 annually will receive a $600 check. Parents and guardians will be eligible for $500 for each dependent child and undocumented migrant families will also get $500. Roughly two-thirds of the state’s total population can expect to receive a stimulus payment.  

Florida 

Lawmakers are using federal funds from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan to deliver $1,000 stimulus checks to teachers and educators in the state. Georgia, Michigan, and Tennessee also are giving out cash payments to those working in schools.  

New Jersey 

New Jersey’s legislature approved a $46 billion state budget that green-lighted tax rebates of up to $500 for nearly eight hundred thousand households in the state.  

Colorado 

Gov. Jared Polis (D) issued an executive order that included $375 checks for residents who received at least one weekly unemployment benefit check from March to October 2020. More than four hundred thousand residents qualified for the money. 

New Mexico 

The New Mexico Human Services Department announced in June that more than four thousand low-income individuals will receive a check of up to $750.  

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn. This article is being republished due to reader interest.

Image: Reuters

Trevor Filseth

Social Security,

Social Security is paid out in full when a person reaches their “full retirement age” (FRA), an age at which the average American will have retired.

Here's What You Need to Remember: Usually, once the decision to claim Social Security is made, there is no going back—one’s payments remain basically the same for life. However, if less than a year has passed, a person can un-claim the benefits by reimbursing the Social Security Administration for the checks that they already cashed. Doing so will remove them from the SSA’s system, and they can reclaim them later at a higher level.

The Social Security Administration (SSA), established in 1935 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt, is responsible for paying retirement benefits to America’s senior citizens and retirees. By most accounts, the program has been vastly successful throughout its existence; it remains one of the most popular federal programs in the United States, and so far, all attempts to privatize or otherwise reform it have failed. While the program is gradually running out of money—the trust fund that pays for it is scheduled to run out in 2035, after which benefit cuts will kick in—it is very likely that Congress, motivated by the voting power of elderly Americans, will take action to protect the payments before this happens.

Social Security is paid out in full when a person reaches their “full retirement age” (FRA), an age at which the average American will have retired. For most Americans retiring now, this age is sixty-six and some number of months; for people born in 1960 or later, the age will increase to sixty-seven. At this point, a person’s full benefits will kick in, theoretically providing them with around forty percent of their pre-retirement income in benefits.

This does not mean, however, that one must wait until FRA age to claim benefits. Starting at the age of sixty-two, anyone can claim his or her benefits—if they are willing to take a substantial cut, usually around thirty percent. On some level, this is understandable: given the choice between having money now and having it later, most people would rather have it now. But most financial planners strongly recommend against taking the benefits early, noting that waiting until FRA age will quickly pay for itself if a person lives a relatively long life. This is not always the right decision—some people want to enjoy retirement, even if it means they have less money—but many Americans file for Social Security at age sixty-two without fully understanding what they are giving up.

Usually, once the decision to claim Social Security is made, there is no going back—one’s payments remain basically the same for life. However, if less than a year has passed, a person can un-claim the benefits by reimbursing the Social Security Administration for the checks that they already cashed. Doing so will remove them from the SSA’s system, and they can reclaim them later at a higher level.

If more than a year has passed, it is also possible to suspend benefits for a certain period of time. If a person contacts the Social Security Administration and asks them to suspend their benefits, they will stop receiving monthly checks until they request them again—or when they turn seventy. The SSA will give the person “delayed retirement credits,” increasing the size of their monthly checks by around eight percent per year.

This would not save a person as much money as if they had simply waited to file—but it would still amount to a substantial increase over a longer period of time.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest. This article is being republished due to reader interest.

Image: Reuters

Stephen Silver

economy, Americas

Motley Fool recently noted that Social Security has been overly stingy in the past with the COLA adjustments. 

There are strong indications that, due to rising inflation, next year’s cost-of-living raise for Social Security recipients will be the largest in years.

The latest estimate from the Senior Citizens League found a possible 6.2 percent cost-of-living adjustment for Social Security recipients for 2022. That was up from the organization’s previous estimate of a 6.1 percent increase.

“The estimate is significant because the COLA is based on the average of the July, August, and September CPI data,” Mary Johnson, a Social Security policy analyst for the Senior Citizens League, said in a statement. The COLA in 2021 was only 1.3 percent, which represented only a negligible increase for most beneficiaries.  

Motley Fool recently noted that Social Security has been overly stingy in the past with the COLA adjustments. 

“Seniors on Social Security are entitled to an annual raise known as a cost-of-living adjustment or COLA. The purpose of COLAs is to help seniors maintain their buying power when living expenses inevitably rise,” according to Motley Fool.

However, the question is whether it’s actual proper to refer to such increases as a “raise.” One expert says no.

Retirement expert Elizabeth Bauer said in an op-ed published this week in Forbes that “raise” is not a term that should be used for Social Security’s annual increases.

“The reality, of course, is this is not actually good news,” Bauer wrote, in reaction to several news headlines positioning the expected benefit increase as a “raise.”

“These adjustments to Social Security benefits are merely meant to keep benefits in line with inflation, and workers themselves will expect pay increases that match inflation to be owed to them, and deem a raise at CPI level to be no real ‘raise’ at all,” Bauer said.

She also noted that the inflation that’s leading to the increased benefits are not actually a good thing for Social Security recipients.

“Despite the decline in pensions for new workers, traditional defined benefit pensions remain an important source of retirement income, with 56% of retirees reporting a pension in a Federal Reserve study in 2017," she wrote. “Although states like Illinois are notorious for their guaranteed, fixed annual increases, not all states offer CPI adjustments, and CPI adjustments are exceedingly rare in the private sector.”

Bauer also noted that the 6.1 percent increase in CPI also represents a “loss in value, in fixed pensions and investments, of 6.1%.”

“The bottom line is that a high Social Security annual increase is not something to celebrate,” Bauer wrote. “It’s time to stop calling it a ‘raise’ and treat it as what it is, an adjustment meant to hold retirees harmless, which may or may not be effective at its goal depending on personal circumstances.” 

Stephen Silver, a technology writer for The National Interest, is a journalist, essayist and film critic, who is also a contributor to The Philadelphia Inquirer, Philly Voice, Philadelphia Weekly, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Living Life Fearless, Backstage magazine, Broad Street Review and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. Follow him on Twitter at @StephenSilver. 

Image: Reuters

The new Israeli prime minister will attempt a softer tone than his predecessor as he visits Biden’s White House.

Ethen Kim Lieser

economy, Americas

Millions have already done so and many do have legitimate reasons for that decision.

Here's What You Need to Remember: “Once you reach your (full retirement age), you can contact the Social Security Administration and ask it to suspend your benefits,” Hagen said. “If you do this, you won’t receive any more Social Security checks until you either request that the Social Security Administration start sending them again or you turn seventy.”  

Despite the ubiquitous warnings from financial planners, the world will not come crumbling down if one decides to claim Social Security benefits at age sixty-two, the earliest age to do so. 

In fact, millions have already done so and many do have legitimate reasons for that decision. However, know that this isn’t for all soon-to-be retirees, as each person’s financial standing is a bit different.  

Eyeing Bigger Checks 

The one clear fact is that it could be a prudent money-related decision to delay filing for as long as possible—and that advice is fully supported by the Social Security Administration (SSA).  

“Workers planning for their retirement should be aware that retirement benefits depend on age at retirement. If a worker begins receiving benefits before his/her normal (or full) retirement age, the worker will receive a reduced benefit. A worker can choose to retire as early as age sixty-two, but doing so may result in a reduction of as much as 30 percent,” according to the SSA website.  

“Starting to receive benefits after normal retirement age may result in larger benefits. With delayed retirement credits, a person can receive his or her largest benefit by retiring at age seventy,” according to the website.  

Meanwhile, the AARP website notes that “your monthly payment will be 76 percent higher if you wait to start benefits at seventy rather than sixty-two, the earliest possible age.”  

Do-Over Possible? 

But what if one already signed up at age sixty-two? Is there a way to change one’s mind?  

Kailey Hagen, an expert finance site Motley Fool noted that “you can change your mind about claiming Social Security as long as it’s been less than one year since you signed up and you return all of the benefits paid to you and any of your family members based on your work history.” 

“If you do this, the Social Security Administration will treat you as if you’ve never claimed Social Security, and when you sign up again later, your checks will be larger,” Hagen said.

But be aware that there is a deadline for one to make this decision. If it has been more than a year since filing, then the individual will have to live with his or her decision. Also, some people just aren’t in the financial position to be able to pay back all of the benefits they have already received.  

There is, though, another smart route one can take.

“Once you reach your (full retirement age), you can contact the Social Security Administration and ask it to suspend your benefits,” Hagen said. “If you do this, you won’t receive any more Social Security checks until you either request that the Social Security Administration start sending them again or you turn seventy.”  

“In the latter case, your benefits will start automatically in the month you turn seventy. Doing this will earn you delayed retirement credits, which increase your future checks,” she added.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn. This article is being republished due to reader interest.

Image: Reuters

Trevor Filseth

Infrastructure Bill,

The Senate is likely to be busy in September, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) still needs to put together a spending bill that conservative Democrats, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krystin Sinema (D-AZ), find agreeable.

On Tuesday, the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives advanced its $3.5 billion budget plan to the Senate. The vote was briefly delayed while ten Democratic representatives indicated they would not support it until a vote was held on a smaller bipartisan infrastructure deal negotiated in the Senate. After Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) committed to bringing it up for a vote within a month, the ten Democrats approved the larger bill, and it passed along partisan lines, with 220 votes in favor and 212 opposed.

The roughly $1 trillion bipartisan bill contains roughly $500 million in new spending for conventional infrastructure, including roads, bridges, the electric grid, railways, and public transit. A number of provisions related to climate were left out of this bill, eliciting complaints from progressive Democrats. Many of these were later added to the larger $3.5 trillion bill. This bill also includes universal pre-K education, Medicare expansion, and increased funding for eldercare.

The issue of passing the smaller, bipartisan bill without passing the larger one has been a point of contention on Capitol Hill. The Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC), an alliance of progressive Democrats, indicated in an August survey that most of its ninety-six members would not vote to approve one bill unless the other would be approved as well. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA), the CPC’s chairwoman, confirmed on Tuesday that this remained the group’s position.  

The Senate is likely to be busy in September, as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) still needs to put together a spending bill that conservative Democrats, including Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krystin Sinema (D-AZ), find agreeable. Because of the Senate’s 50-50 split, and the Republicans’ strong opposition to the proposed reconciliation bill, any dissenting Democrat in the chamber could kill the bill. Both senators have agreed to the $3.5 trillion spending proposal, substantially increasing its prospects for success.

While most bills can be “filibustered,” or blocked by a single senator until sixty or more vote to continue, reconciliation is a procedural method that exempts bills from filibusters. The March 2021 American Rescue Plan Act, which provided the third round of $1,400 stimulus checks as well as the incoming Child Tax Credit advance payments, was passed through reconciliation. However, Elizabeth MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, has declared that Democrats will only receive one more reconciliation bill during the current legislative session—which Schumer and other Senate Democratic leaders are using for this bill.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest.

Image: Reuters

Trevor Filseth

Child Tax Credit,

July’s checks have mostly arrived by now, and August’s are on their way, with the next round of checks set to be distributed on Wednesday, September 15.

Here's What You Need to Remember: Under the old rules, parents could claim $3,000 in expenses for up to two children, for a maximum credit of $6,000. The American Rescue Plan Act nearly tripled this payout, allowing families to claim up to $8,000 per child, or $16,000 in total.

The American Rescue Plan Act, passed by President Joe Biden in March 2021, provided for an expanded version of the Child Tax Credit. Before the plan, the credit provided a tax credit of $2,000 to parents for each of their children, with no distinction based on age. The credit could only be claimed on one’s tax return, and if a family owed less than $2,000 in taxes, the credit could not be claimed in full.

The American Rescue Plan Act changed all of this. The credit was raised to $3,000 or $3,600 per child per year, depending on the child’s age; it was made fully refundable, meaning that it would still be paid to families who could not discount all of it from their taxes; and, most importantly, half of it is being sent out in advance, in the form of monthly checks from July until December. July’s checks have mostly arrived by now, and August’s are on their way, with the next round of checks set to be distributed on Wednesday, September 15.

This tax credit has proven to be very popular with American families, to the extent that some are pushing for the credit to be made permanent. However, the American Rescue Plan Act also raised another significant tax credit that has received far less attention: the “Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit,” which, according to a recent Bipartisan Policy Center survey, roughly half of all Americans are completely unaware of.

As they sound very similar and fulfill a similar purpose, the two tax credits are sometimes conflated, but they are substantially different in their details. While the Child Tax Credit is intended to cover general child-associated costs, the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit reimburses parents for specific expenses that they can show they spent on their children, although the rules for how this money can be spent and what expenses can be deducted are somewhat stricter.

Under the old rules, parents could claim $3,000 in expenses for up to two children, for a maximum credit of $6,000. The American Rescue Plan Act nearly tripled this payout, allowing families to claim up to $8,000 per child, or $16,000 in total. This is substantially more than the Child Tax Credit provides; for example, a family of two high school-aged children could receive only $6,000 directly from the Child Tax Credit.

And, like the Child Tax Credit, the American Rescue Plan made the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit fully refundable, meaning that families without tax liabilities can still claim the payments as cash.

Trevor Filseth is a current and foreign affairs writer for the National Interest. This article is being republished due to reader interest.

Image: Reuters

Ethen Kim Lieser

Child Tax Credit,

There are still reports abound that parents have yet to see the funds in their respective bank accounts.

Here's What You Need to Remember: Do take note that after sending out last month’s Child Tax Credit payments, the IRS admitted that some “mixed-status” families—those with one parent who is a U.S. citizen and the other who is an immigrant—didn’t immediately see the funds in their bank accounts.

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the Treasury Department have confirmed that they are in the process of successfully disbursing the second batch of advance monthly payments worth approximately $15 billion from the expanded Child Tax Credits, but there are still reports abound that parents have yet to see the funds in their respective bank accounts.

According to the agencies, one glitch is due to an unspecified issue, and that up to fifteen percent of families who received the payment in July via direct deposit now will be getting a paper check via the post office this month.

“Like the first payments, the vast majority of families will receive these payments by direct deposit,” the IRS noted in a release. “For those affected, no additional action is needed for the September payment to be issued by direct deposit. Families can visit the Child Tax Credit Update Portal to see if they’re receiving a direct deposit or paper check this month.”

Getting one’s hands on the Child Tax Credits via traditional mail could potentially take a week or longer. “Be sure to allow extra time for delivery by mail through the end of August,” the agency advised.

Glitch No. 2

Do take note that after sending out last month’s Child Tax Credit payments, the IRS admitted that some “mixed-status” families—those with one parent who is a U.S. citizen and the other who is an immigrant—didn’t immediately see the funds in their bank accounts.

The agency confirmed that the nonpayment was indeed a mistake and proper steps have been taken to rectify the matter. 

Lacking Necessary Information

Other eligible parents who may have not received their tax credits might not have the required information—such as an address and routing and bank account numbers—on file at the tax agency. Due to this issue, a recent report released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has indicated that roughly four million children from low-income families are at risk of not receiving any funds from the expanded credits.

For months, the IRS has asserted that the fastest way for Americans to get their hands on the credits or any of the three stimulus checks is to file a federal tax return as soon as possible. The public can also take advantage of the recently launched Non-filer Sign-up Tool, which will help disburse the credits promptly.

The expanded Child Tax Credits, approved under President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan last spring, now allow eligible parents to collect as much as $3,600 per year for a child under the age of six and up to $3,000 for children between ages six and seventeen. Broken down, that means a $250 or a $300 payment for each child will be deposited each month through the end of the year.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn. This article is being republished due to reader interest.

Image: Reuters

Ethen Kim Lieser

economy, Americas

The latest estimates suggest that about thirty-six million American families are currently receiving the monthly payments, but the agencies have made it known that it isn’t too late to sign up for the recurring funds.  

Here's What You Need to Remember: A recent report released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities revealed that approximately four million children from low-income families are at risk of not receiving the monthly payments if the tax agency doesn’t have the required personal and financial information.

The Internal Revenue Service and the Treasury Department already are two months into the disbursement of the expanded child tax credits that were approved under President Joe Biden’s ambitious American Rescue Plan. 

The latest estimates suggest that about thirty-six million American families are currently receiving the monthly payments, but the agencies have made it known that it isn’t too late to sign up for the recurring funds.  

Bigger Monthly Checks 

In fact, if a person chooses to sign up now, then the remaining payments would indeed be even bigger compared to those who have been receiving the checks since July.  

The chief reason is that the money is an advance on tax credits—of which half is to be delivered this year and the rest to arrive when individuals file their federal tax returns next year. Therefore, even if a person signs up late for the credits, the agencies will try to issue the entire first half of the credits by the time 2022 rolls around.  

For example, if a family missed the child tax credit payments in July but was able to sign up this month, there would indeed be a slight bump in the monthly checks.  

“This means that the total payment will be spread over five months, rather than six, making each monthly payment larger,” the IRS noted in a statement.  

“For these families, each payment is up to $360 per month for each child under age six and up to $300 per month for each child ages six through seventeen,” it continued.  

For weeks, the IRS has been urging potentially eligible Americans to take advantage of the Non-filer Sign-up Tool that will give the tax agency the necessary information—such as an address and routing and bank account numbers—to promptly disburse the funds.  

The IRS has also launched a brand-new feature that enables any eligible family to update their mailing address using the Child Tax Credit Update Portal, which can be found on IRS.gov.  

“This feature will help any family that chooses to receive their payment by paper check avoid mailing delays or even having a check returned as undeliverable,” the IRS says in a release.  

Focus on Low-Income Households  

Being able to reach the nation’s poorest households has become a primary goal of the agency.  

“This important new tax change affects millions of families across the nation, and the IRS wants to do everything it can to help people get the payments,” IRS Wage & Investment Commissioner Ken Corbin, who also serves as the agency’s Chief Taxpayer Experience Officer, said in a statement. 

“Many people miss out on tax benefits simply because they don’t file a tax return,” he added. 

A recent report released by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities revealed that approximately four million children from low-income families are at risk of not receiving the monthly payments if the tax agency doesn’t have the required personal and financial information.

Ethen Kim Lieser is a Washington state-based Science and Tech Editor who has held posts at Google, The Korea Herald, Lincoln Journal Star, AsianWeek, and Arirang TV. Follow or contact him on LinkedIn. This article is being republished due to reader interest.

Image: Reuters

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