tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca-fr/topics/biden-covid-relief-bill-101455/articlesBiden COVID relief bill – La Conversation2021-04-29T12:47:05Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1587302021-04-29T12:47:05Z2021-04-29T12:47:05ZState lawsuits over stimulus tax rule face uphill battle<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396369/original/file-20210421-13-oozbx7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=35%2C106%2C7805%2C5037&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at an American Rescue Plan virtual briefing on March 11, 2021 in Washington, D.C.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vice-president-kamala-harris-speaks-at-an-american-rescue-news-photo/1306551744?adppopup=true">Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>States were told by the federal government that they can’t use pandemic relief funds passed by Congress in March to lower taxes. In response, 16 states have filed lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of that <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/politics/stimulus-states-lawsuit-tax-cuts.html">restriction</a> in the <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/featured-stories/fact-sheet-the-american-rescue-plan-will-deliver-immediate-economic-relief-to-families">US$1.9 trillion legislation</a>, known as the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021.</p>
<p>The rescue plan makes $350 billion available to state and local governments over the next four years to cover costs associated with COVID-19. It guarantees every state at least $500 million, but more can be provided based on unemployment numbers and poverty rates.</p>
<p>The law, however, forbids states from using this money “to either directly or indirectly offset a reduction in net tax revenue” over those four years. In other words, rescue plan money cannot pay for state tax cuts.</p>
<p>That restriction prompted the lawsuits, which are pending in Ohio, Arizona, Missouri and Alabama federal courts.</p>
<p>The states claim that the rescue plan’s policies <a href="https://constitutioncenter.org/interactive-constitution/interpretation/amendment-x/interps/129">violate the 10th Amendment</a>, which helps define the relationship between the federal government and the states. </p>
<p>Historically, the Supreme Court has interpreted this provision to prevent the federal government from directing state policy rather than to limit what the feds can do themselves.</p>
<p>The rescue plan might run afoul of the 10th Amendment if it dictated what laws state legislatures must or must not adopt. That would mean states could use the federal money to offset tax cuts. </p>
<p>But as a <a href="https://case.edu/law/our-school/faculty-directory/jonathan-l-entin">constitutional law professor</a> who has written extensively about federal powers, I think it’s unlikely that the rescue plan violates the 10th Amendment. That’s because it does not order states to do anything. </p>
<h2>Supreme Court precedent</h2>
<p>In 1992, the Supreme Court declared that a federal law ordering states to pass legislation for the <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1991/91-543">safe disposal of nuclear waste</a> violated the 10th Amendment. And in 2018 the high court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act, which <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2017/16-476">forbade states from authorizing sports betting</a>.</p>
<p>But the rescue plan does not explicitly require or forbid states to enact legislation, as the nuclear waste and sports gambling laws did.</p>
<p>It offers states a deal: If you want federal money, you can’t use it to subsidize tax cuts. States get to choose whether they prefer tax cuts or federal funding. So I believe the 10th Amendment challenge will likely fail.</p>
<p>The plaintiff states rely more heavily on a claim that the tax provision imposes an unconstitutional condition on receipt of their funds. They have two main arguments.</p>
<p>The states assert that the law forbids them from cutting taxes, even though it does not.</p>
<p>They rely on the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn a provision of the Affordable Care Act that <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/2011/11-393">withheld all federal Medicaid funding from states</a> that refused to expand the health coverage program. </p>
<p>This was a real penalty: The feds were already providing more than half of all Medicaid money and would pay virtually all of the additional costs of expanding the program. States that refused to expand Medicaid <a href="https://www.pewtrusts.org/en/research-and-analysis/blogs/stateline/2012/06/28/court-lets-states-opt-out-of-medicaid-expansion">would get no federal Medicaid money at all</a>, leaving them much worse off than they were before.</p>
<p>But the rescue plan does not put the states in a worse position.</p>
<p>The rescue plan seeks only to make sure that the federal spending goes to cover the costs of the pandemic. It imposes a condition on federal spending, something that the Supreme Court has consistently approved.</p>
<h2>Funds for pandemic expenses</h2>
<p>The rescue plan tax provision more closely resembles a law that <a href="https://www.csmonitor.com/1986/1016/adrink.html">withheld federal highway money</a> from states that had a drinking age below 21. <a href="https://www.oyez.org/cases/1986/86-260">The Supreme Court upheld that law</a> in 1987.</p>
<p>The Supreme Court recognized that a condition could be unconstitutionally coercive. But it dismissed that concern because states would lose only 5% of their highway money if they failed to raise their drinking age. Every state except South Dakota complied with the condition. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Harris explains how the Covid relief package will help small businesses." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=395&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/396371/original/file-20210421-19-z3vb3b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=496&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Vice President Harris embarked on a three-state tour in March to highlight how the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 will help small businesses in driving the American economic recovery.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/vice-president-kamala-harris-right-and-the-second-gentleman-news-photo/1307483418?adppopup=true">Helen H. Richardson/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images</a></span>
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</figure>
<p>The same principle should apply here. The rescue plan withholds federal relief if the funds offset state tax cuts. The feds need not provide any relief, but it can make sure that the relief it does provide is used to <a href="https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-personal-taxes-legislation-coronavirus-pandemic-unemployment-insurance-104c5477a7879abd4117abfea25c30d5">defray pandemic expenses</a>. </p>
<p>The plaintiff states also maintain that the broad scope of the rescue plan’s tax provision – which covers “direct or indirect” reductions in net tax revenue, such as by lowering tax rates or providing tax rebates – makes its coverage ambiguous. That, states claim, violates the requirement that conditions on federal spending be “clearly stated.”</p>
<p>But at least one state, Missouri, concedes that the provision simply forbids applying stimulus money “to offset a specific tax reduction of a similar amount.” That concession could hurt the states in court.</p>
<p>And Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has authority to promulgate regulations to clarify any ambiguity. She recently <a href="https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0113">issued guidance under the law</a>, stating that changes to state tax laws that take account of recent changes to federal tax law will not be treated as tax cuts under the rescue plan.</p>
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<h2>Other payment methods</h2>
<p>Suppose, however, that the rescue plan does have a broader sweep.</p>
<p>States still could provide economic help to their residents and keep all of their COVID-19 money. They could do so by using ARPA money to pay people directly instead of reducing their taxes.</p>
<p>Maybe states should be careful not to label those payments as rebates, which might run afoul of the restriction. But they could avoid that problem by calling them, in <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319/text">the rescue plan’s words</a>, “assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits” and “aid to impacted industries.”</p>
<p>However these cases get resolved, we should view them as the latest round in the political battle between the states and the federal government over contentious federal policy.</p>
<p>Legal doctrines might evolve, but in many respects these lawsuits are really performances: They allow state officials to score <a href="https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2020-08-28/california-100-lawsuits-trump-administration">political points with their constituents</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-fix/wp/2016/05/27/why-texas-likes-to-sue-the-federal-government-a-lot/">whether or not their legal arguments ultimately prevail</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158730/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jonathan Entin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>States claim the stimulus law assaults state sovereignty by barring local governments from using aid money to cut taxes. But the Supreme Court has consistently approved conditions on federal spending.Jonathan Entin, Professor Emeritus of Law and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Case Western Reserve UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1576562021-04-26T12:11:11Z2021-04-26T12:11:11ZHow lifting children out of poverty today will help them tomorrow<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/396581/original/file-20210422-17-1o4tmjx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C520%2C5367%2C3268&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Keeping kids above the poverty line contributes to their stability in adulthood.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/full-length-of-mother-reading-picture-book-while-royalty-free-image/1214861921">Maskot/DigitalVision via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>As part of the latest COVID-19 relief package, the federal government has expanded the child tax credit and made it available <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/13/new-3000-child-tax-credit-to-start-payments-in-july-irs-says.html">to all families with children</a> except those with the highest incomes. Families will get US$3,000 per kid ages 6 to 17, and $3,600 for younger children. The Internal Revenue Service will deliver half of this money as monthly payments of either $250 or $300 during the second half of 2021 and the rest as a lump sum during the 2022 tax season.</p>
<p>If the government extends this benefit beyond the one year that’s currently funded, as many <a href="https://www.insidernj.com/press-release/booker-brown-bennet-wyden-warnock-lead-senate-democrats-push-make-critical-tax-cuts-workers-families-permanent-next-recovery-bill/">members of Congress</a> and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/biden-s-expanded-child-tax-credit-would-be-dramatic-change-n1261247">the Biden administration</a> would like, this policy has the potential to dramatically <a href="https://www.povertycenter.columbia.edu/news-internal/2019/3/5/the-afa-and-child-poverty">cut child poverty by as much as 50%</a>. </p>
<p>This kind of arrangement is <a href="https://www.vox.com/2016/5/23/11440638/child-benefit-child-allowance">already the norm in many countries</a>, such as Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=XneK_7sAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">As economists</a> who <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=QyEpkJ0AAAAJ&hl=en">have spent decades</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?hl=en&user=CsIDXpcAAAAJ">studying poverty</a>, we believe it will have lasting benefits.</p>
<h2>Long-term benefits</h2>
<p>Many studies conducted in recent years show that lifting children from the burdens of poverty has the potential to improve their health and ability to get a good education.</p>
<p>For example, economist <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=qVzS26wAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Chloe East</a> found that when low-income families with young kids receive benefits from the <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.3368/jhr.55.3.0916-8197R2">Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program</a>, the children are less likely to miss school and more likely to be in good health as they get older.</p>
<p>A team of researchers who assessed the effects of <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1037/a0023875">reforms to cash welfare programs</a> conducted in the 1990s similarly found that helping low-income families pay their bills leads to their kids’ doing better at school in the future.</p>
<p>Other studies have looked into what happened when low-income families with children wound up with more money through expansions in the <a href="https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/earned-income-tax-credit-eitc">earned income tax credit</a>, or EITC – a benefit paid to workers with low levels of earnings that the government substantially <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/R44825.html#_Toc4747515">expanded in the mid-1990s</a>.</p>
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<p>Researchers have found that this increased income was associated later on with students’ <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/aer.102.5.1927">scoring higher on standardized tests</a> and becoming more likely to <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2674603">graduate from high school and go to college</a>, and in early adulthood they are more likely to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1086/697477">have a job and earn higher wages</a>.</p>
<p>Another study that one of us conducted with two other colleagues found that babies born to families benefiting from the EITC <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/pol.20120179">are healthier overall</a>. Other research found that women who give birth while benefiting from the EITC <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/pol.6.2.258">have better physical and mental health</a>. </p>
<p>And two of us conducted a study that detected <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/aer.20130375">better health in adulthood</a> for people whose families benefited from the introduction of the <a href="https://www.fns.usda.gov/snap/short-history-snap">food stamp program</a> when they were children in the 1960s and early 1970s. Similarly, researchers have seen long-term improvements in terms of increased educational attainment among low-income children whose families received <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/app.2.1.86">a type of basic income</a> paid to members of the <a href="https://repository.upenn.edu/pennwhartonppi_bschool/11/">Eastern Cherokee tribal government</a> out of casino profits.</p>
<p>When families with young children get access to cash welfare, that support has even been linked to higher earnings in adulthood and <a href="https://www.doi.org/10.1257/aer.20140529">longer lives</a>.</p>
<h2>An incomplete fix</h2>
<p>This entire body of research suggests that the benefits of alleviating poverty are significant when children get more money, food, health care and other resources early on, especially between <a href="https://developingchild.harvard.edu/science/deep-dives/lifelong-health/">conception and the age of 5</a>.</p>
<p>To be sure, providing all but the wealthiest families who have children under 18 with <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/this-calculator-shows-how-much-you-will-earn-under-new-child-tax-credit.html">extra cash</a> will not begin to do away with all of the inequalities facing children in America. Nor will these payments ensure that all children ultimately have the same shot at good health, a great education or, down the road, opportunities to make a good living.</p>
<p>But we do believe that this policy, especially if it takes hold for the long term, will meaningfully improve millions of children’s lives and give them a much better start in life.</p>
<p>Among other things, it reverses a troubling trend. Since 1990, increases in federal spending aimed at benefiting children, including changes to the <a href="https://theintercept.com/2019/10/19/democrats-poverty-earned-income-tax-credit/">earned income tax credit</a>, have often <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/bpea-articles/safety-net-investments-in-children/">failed to assist the poorest families</a> in a country where <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html">1 in 7 children were languishing in poverty</a> before the COVID-19 pandemic began.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach receives funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. She is a board member of the Food Research & Action Center and the Greater Chicago Food Depository. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Hilary Hoynes receives funding for her work on long term effects of the social safety net from Arnold Ventures, the Russell Sage Foundation, The Washington Center for Equitable Growth, and the National Institute on Aging.
Hilary Hoynes serves as a board member of MDRC and the California Budget and Policy Center, both organizations work on policies around child poverty.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Melissa S. Kearney is the Director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group and is on the advisory boards of Notre Dame's Wilson-Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunities and the Smith Richardson Foundation. </span></em></p>Many studies conducted in recent years tie lower poverty rates for children to better health and higher pay when they grow up.Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach, Professor of Education and Social Policy; Director of the Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern UniversityHilary Hoynes, Professor of Public Policy and Economics, University of California, BerkeleyMelissa S. Kearney, Professor of Economics, University of Maryland; Director, Aspen Economic Strategy Group, University of MarylandLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1584002021-04-20T12:26:43Z2021-04-20T12:26:43ZAn advantage of the government’s new payments for families: Not humiliating poor people<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395119/original/file-20210414-24-ip9wrz.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C5132%2C2735&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Nearly all U.S. families with children will benefit.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-working-while-sitting-with-daughter-at-table-royalty-free-image/1091920108">Tara Moore/Stone via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/millions-of-american-parents-will-soon-get-a-monthly-allowance-4-questions-answered-156834">US$1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package</a> President Joe Biden signed in March 2021 will expand the child tax credit for one year. Instead of providing families with up to $2,000 per child under 17, the government will distribute a total of <a href="https://www.kiplinger.com/taxes/602603/monthly-payments-of-the-2021-child-tax-credit-will-begin-in-july">$3,600 for each child under 6 and $3,000</a> for kids under 18.</p>
<p>Some economists predict that these payments, which will go to all but the wealthiest parents in two ways – <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/03/16/this-calculator-shows-how-much-you-will-earn-under-new-child-tax-credit.html">monthly starting in July 2021</a> and as a lump sum when parents file their taxes in 2022 – could <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2021/03/11/new-child-tax-credit-could-slash-poverty-now-and-boost-social-mobility-later/">cut U.S. child poverty by nearly 50%</a>. Today, about <a href="https://www.census.gov/library/publications/2020/demo/p60-270.html">1 in 7 U.S. children</a> live below the official poverty line.</p>
<p>I’m a law professor who researches the often-humiliating and punitive hurdles that <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=638027">poor families face when they apply for some government benefits</a>. From my perspective, this new approach to supporting families is important, and not just because it will reduce poverty. For one of the first times in modern U.S. history, it recognizes that nearly all U.S. families with children deserve support and treats them the same way.</p>
<p>Many <a href="https://money.yahoo.com/democrats-push-expanded-tax-credits-permanent-154332572.html">Democrats in Congress</a> want to <a href="https://money.yahoo.com/democrats-push-expanded-tax-credits-permanent-154332572.html">make this policy permanent</a>. If they succeed, nearly all families with children will be able to count on getting these benefits, much in the same way that <a href="https://www.nasi.org/discuss/2015/08/social-security%E2%80%99s-past-present-future">senior citizens at all income levels</a> receive Social Security payments. </p>
<h2>Meager ‘welfare’ for low-income families</h2>
<p>Conservative critics of the safety net often argue that <a href="https://www.everycrsreport.com/reports/RL32760.html">Temporary Assistance to Needy Families</a>, the income support program for families with children that many Americans simply call “welfare,” is <a href="https://www.heritage.org/welfare/report/understanding-the-hidden-11-trillion-welfare-system-and-how-reform-it">large-scale and generous</a>. But this program, known as TANF, does <a href="https://www.clasp.org/blog/families-can-t-get-cash-assistance">not begin to meet the needs of the nation’s poor families</a>.</p>
<p>The cash it makes available varies by state. In Tennessee, where I live, a family of three receives <a href="https://www.tn.gov/humanservices/for-families/families-first-tanf/families-first-eligibility-information.html">$277.16 per month</a>. Nationally, monthly benefits vary significantly, from a low of $170 per month for a family of three in Mississippi to a high of $1,086 for the same family in New Hampshire.</p>
<p>Even in New Hampshire, TANF does not lift families out of poverty. There, as in every state, people getting these benefits remain <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/tanf-benefits-still-too-low-to-help-families-especially-black">well below the poverty line</a>. What’s more, American families can’t get these benefits for more than a <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/temporary-assistance-for-needy-families">total of five years</a>.</p>
<p>In addition, the <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2254054">application process is often seen as deeply degrading</a>, and once families do receive TANF benefits, they can easily lose them. If, for example, a parent misses one work-related appointment, if their child misses school or if they did not submit <a href="https://www.tn.gov/humanservices/for-families/families-first-tanf/families-first-eligibility-information.html">paperwork the state needs to seek child support</a>, the state can cut off these benefits. </p>
<p>As a result, the majority of families who qualify do not receive TANF payments. In 2019, only <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/tanfs-reach-declined-significantly-over-time-2">23 of every 100 eligible families</a> got them. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A woman holds a child in her lap while doing paperwork" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/395353/original/file-20210415-22-15coha5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">For low-income American families, the paperwork to get benefits can be onerous and time-consuming.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/woman-working-while-sitting-with-daughter-at-table-royalty-free-image/1091920108">Maskot/Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Many of the other benefits available to low-income Americans, including public housing, <a href="https://www.benefits.gov/benefit/710">Section 8 housing vouchers</a> and Medicaid, can be similarly <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2970198">stigmatizing, difficult, unreliable and risky</a>.</p>
<p>For these poverty-focused programs, the paperwork is lengthy and complicated. Benefits can be contingent on time-consuming or onerous requirements, such as intensive job searches or drug tests. There are interviews about <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1926757">your history, your behavior and your choices</a>. In some cases, a government official will inspect your home. Any information disclosed or discovered can be <a href="https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2506866">shared with other government agencies</a>.</p>
<p>If, during that inspection, a caseworker sees something she thinks signals child neglect, like an empty refrigerator or a broken stove, the next person at the door could be from your local child protective services agency. If the caseworker does not like what she sees, she has the power to take your children away, and they could end up in <a href="https://theconversation.com/children-in-foster-care-face-deeper-jeopardy-during-the-coronavirus-pandemic-141263">foster care</a>. </p>
<h2>Having more money means easier access to benefits</h2>
<p>What some people do not realize is that wealthier people get welfare too. In fact, tens of millions of Americans who are <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2970198">either middle-class or affluent</a> get generous government benefits.</p>
<p>The government delivers these additional welfare benefits through tax breaks. And for Americans who are in the middle or upper class, getting government benefits is typically easy and reliable.</p>
<p>A well-off family may qualify for the <a href="https://www.nerdwallet.com/blog/mortgage-interest-deduction/">mortgage-interest deduction</a> because of the size of their loan and their income. They might get <a href="https://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/how-does-tax-exclusion-employer-sponsored-health-insurance-work">tax-free health insurance coverage</a> or at least the opportunity to spend <a href="https://www.investopedia.com/are-health-insurance-premiums-tax-deductible-4773286">pre-tax dollars on their health insurance premiums</a> through their job.</p>
<p>More than half of these tax breaks <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/federal-tax-expenditures">benefit the highest-earning Americans</a> – people whose incomes are among the highest fifth of all earners. Only 4.3% of them support those in the bottom fifth of the income scale.</p>
<p>To get these benefits, you might have to fill out a form or check a box, but that’s it. Like clockwork, cash arrives or your tax bills are much lower than they’d otherwise be.</p>
<p>The tab for all this welfare really adds up.</p>
<p>The federal government spent about <a href="https://www.cbpp.org/tax-expenditures-are-very-costly-3">$1.3 trillion</a> on these tax breaks in 2020, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities. That think tank estimates that this totaled more than the combined cost of Medicaid and Medicare and around four times the approximately <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/historical-tables/">$364 million</a> the government spent in 2020 on food assistance, housing aid and income support combined.</p>
<p>Permanently expanding the child tax credit along the lines of this year-long measure would cost the government about an estimated <a href="https://taxfoundation.org/expanded-child-tax-credit-permanent">$160 billion annually</a> over the next decade.</p>
<h2>A step away from discrimination</h2>
<p>The expanded child tax credit will benefit almost all families, and it will work the way benefits currently work for the wealthy. </p>
<p><a href="https://krdo.com/news/2021/03/15/money-matters-increase-in-child-tax-credit-and-tool-to-track-stimulus-check/">About 93% of all families</a> with children, from those at the very bottom to <a href="https://crsreports.congress.gov/product/pdf/IN/IN11613">married couples earning up to $150,000 per year</a>, will receive the same cash benefits, delivered monthly beginning in July 2021, to support their children. </p>
<p>Married couples with kids who are earning over $150,000 but less than $400,000 <a href="https://www.bankrate.com/banking/savings/expanded-child-tax-credit-when-will-you-get-it/">will still benefit</a> but get a smaller tax credit. Only families making more than $400,000 will receive nothing.</p>
<p>Because the government will be treating everyone eligible in the same way – as families who need and deserve support – I see it as an important step away from a discriminatory system in which, all too often, <a href="https://ssrn.com/abstract=2254054">poor people are shamed</a> and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/welfare-for-the-wealthy/A1FAFD0C691DDD712FC863922ACB2328">rich people are supported</a>.</p>
<p>[<em>Get the best of The Conversation, every weekend.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters/weekly-highlights-61?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=weeklybest">Sign up for our weekly newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/158400/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wendy Bach does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>For middle-class and wealthy families, securing government aid tends to be free of hassles. For low-income families, the process is often stigmatizing and the benefits meager.Wendy Bach, Professor of Law, University of TennesseeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1570382021-03-12T13:41:55Z2021-03-12T13:41:55ZDebunking the myth of legislative gridlock as laws and policy are made in the nation’s capital<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/389145/original/file-20210311-13-166x09j.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=25%2C12%2C8484%2C5613&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">President Joe Biden signs the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill into law Thursday. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-participates-in-a-bill-signing-in-the-news-photo/1306546739?adppopup=true">Doug Mills-Pool/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>So much for gridlock. </p>
<p>President Joe Biden just <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/03/11/us/joe-biden-news#biden-signs-stimulus">signed a nearly $US1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package</a>. Its swift passage relied on a process known as “budget reconciliation,” which allowed Congress to enact the plan <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/us/politics/biden-stimulus-senate-vote.html">without a single GOP vote</a>.</p>
<p>This massive legislation follows a flurry of executive orders on <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/podcasts/the-daily/joe-biden-covid-environment-immigration-executive-orders.html">climate change, immigration, racial justice and more</a>.</p>
<p>Laws and policy are being made in the nation’s capital, despite its reputation as suffering from partisan gridlock.</p>
<p>The fact is that gridlock has always been a myth, resting on half-truths about the legislative process and a basic misunderstanding of how contemporary policymaking works. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A vote tally in Congress on a coronavirus aid package" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384521/original/file-20210216-15-1bozmx4.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Tally of the vote on approving the almost $500 billion coronavirus package in the House of Representatives at the U.S. Capitol, April 23, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://newsroom.ap.org/detail/VirusOutbreakCongress/b82eec2da7ab44e69c69398535c23edf/photo?Query=U.S.%20House%20of%20Representatives%20voting&mediaType=photo&sortBy=arrivaldatetime:desc&dateRange=Anytime&totalCount=221&currentItemNo=16">House Television via AP</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Legislative obstacle course</h2>
<p>Today’s political environment is undoubtedly difficult for lawmakers who want to pass legislation. <a href="https://voteview.com/articles/party_polarization">Party polarization levels are historically high</a>, and <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/12/01/slim-majorities-have-become-more-common-in-the-u-s-senate-and-house/">slim House and Senate majorities are increasingly common</a>. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.brookings.edu/policy2020/votervital/what-is-the-senate-filibuster-and-what-would-it-take-to-eliminate-it">filibuster, which requires 60 votes to pass bills in the Senate, is now routinely used</a> to block legislation. Under these circumstances, Congress crosses fewer items off its to-do list. Congress’ failure rate on key issues – the percentage of issues that are not addressed on its policy agenda through legislation – <a href="https://kansaspress.ku.edu/978-0-7006-3001-1.html">has more than doubled from 30% to over 60% since World War II</a>. </p>
<p>Yet there is still <a href="https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/unorthodox-lawmaking/book243858">significant room to maneuver</a>, and <a href="https://yalebooks.yale.edu/book/9780300102888/divided-we-govern">Congress gets more done than you might think </a>.</p>
<p>Consider the <a href="https://history.house.gov/Congressional-Overview/Profiles/115th/">115th Congress</a>, which convened after President Donald Trump’s election in 2016, the last time the same political party controlled the House, Senate and Oval Office.</p>
<p>That Congress enacted <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/25/a-productivity-scorecard-for-115th-congress/">442 laws, the most in a decade</a>. A chunk of these laws were mostly symbolic, enacting such measures as designating national days of recognition. But an estimated 306 – 69% – were substantive, according to the Pew Research Center, including a <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/01/25/a-productivity-scorecard-for-115th-congress/">$1.5 trillion tax cut and bipartisan measures on criminal justice reform, farm policy, the opioid crisis and sanctions on Russia</a>. </p>
<p>This places the 115th Congress on par with earlier sessions, which have passed <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/01/21/nothing-lame-about-this-lame-duck-116th-congress-had-busiest-post-election-session-in-recent-history/">an average of 311 substantive laws since 1989</a>.</p>
<h2>Policy is more than legislation</h2>
<p>The gridlock narrative focuses too narrowly on Congress and the bills it does or doesn’t pass. </p>
<p>Policy is the set of principles and goals that guide governmental decision-making. Congress may have the sole power to write new laws, but it does not have a monopoly on making policy.</p>
<p>Most obviously, the <a href="https://theconversation.com/what-is-an-executive-order-and-why-dont-presidents-use-them-all-the-time-150896">executive branch can shift policy through executive orders</a>, which <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/executive-orders">averaged 36 per year under President George W. Bush, 35 under President Obama and 55 under President Trump</a>. President Biden is already up to <a href="https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/statistics/data/executive-orders">37 executive orders and counting</a>. The executive branch also uses less visible means to change policy, <a href="https://cei.org/sites/default/files/Wayne%20Crews%20-%20Mapping%20Washington%27s%20Lawlessness%202017.pdf">such as internal guidance memos, circulars, bulletins and other arcane directives</a>. </p>
<p>These policy initiatives fall outside the <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/waynecrews/2015/07/12/congress-better-fix-regulatory-dark-matter/?sh=184268f97970">normal review processes, which require extensive notice and opportunities for public comment</a>. The Trump administration reportedly issued over <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/08/the-race-to-dismantle-trumps-immigration-policies">1,000 changes to immigration policy using these methods, helping to slash legal immigration to the United States by half</a>. </p>
<p>There are other avenues of policymaking that bypass the legislative process: </p>
<p>• Sometimes officials engage in “policy conversion,” which means <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4145310?seq=1">repurposing old laws to new ends</a>. In that way, the law stays the same, but the underlying policy sends it in different and sometimes surprising directions. For example, antitrust laws initially targeted business trusts, forbidding organizational practices “in restraint of trade.” Businesses persuaded federal judges to apply this general ban to unions, <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/advances-in-comparativehistorical-analysis/drift-and-conversion-hidden-faces-of-institutional-change/6484F82F28B944279F239F14722C07AF">directing the law to new targets</a>. Similar shifts of policy from guarding one set of interests to protecting another can be found in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/lsi.12089">consumer protection law </a>, <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801444173/disability-rights-and-the-american-social-safety-net/#bookTabs=1">disability policy</a> and <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/structuring-politics/ideas-and-the-politics-of-bounded-innovation/804C13C315DF5E8B1F1C5B80A81DEF82">social programs</a>.</p>
<p>• Sometimes Washington makes policy by doing nothing at all. President Biden’s original COVID-19 relief package proposed to increase the federal minimum wage, which has remained at $7.25 per hour since 2007. <a href="https://www.usinflationcalculator.com">That $7.25 is now worth less than $6 because of inflation</a>. The Senate balked at this provision and it was dropped, although some Democrats have vowed to revisit the issue <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/us/minimum-wage-senate.html?searchResultPosition=3">after the relief package is signed into law</a>. In this example, congressional inaction for over a decade effectively has cut the minimum wage by over 15% and will continue to chip away until a new law is passed. Scholars call this process “<a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/studies-in-american-political-development/article/abs/political-effects-of-policy-drift-policy-stalemate-and-american-political-development/5C8D958E44A647C481D22B9AD87F6AC8">policy drift</a>” and argue it has been central to <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/4145310?seq=1">shrinking the functional size of the social safety net since the 1980s</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="President Biden at his desk" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384527/original/file-20210216-15-19h1ea6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/384527/original/file-20210216-15-19h1ea6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384527/original/file-20210216-15-19h1ea6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384527/original/file-20210216-15-19h1ea6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=396&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384527/original/file-20210216-15-19h1ea6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384527/original/file-20210216-15-19h1ea6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/384527/original/file-20210216-15-19h1ea6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=497&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">President Joe Biden signs executive orders related to immigration Feb. 2 in the Oval Office.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/president-joe-biden-signs-executive-orders-related-to-news-photo/1230936282?adppopup=true">Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Policy complexity, not gridlock</h2>
<p>The point is that policy can change in many ways, as a house does. Most visibly, you can demolish a house and rebuild it. Often this is impractical, and it’s easier to add a new room. Less visibly, you can remodel, converting a basement or garage without changing the house from the outside. Most subtly, changing circumstances can diminish a house’s usefulness, as when when a starter home fails to keep pace with the needs of a growing family.</p>
<p>Given these dynamics, myopically focusing on Congress and its purported gridlock mischaracterizes the real risk of legislative stalemate, which is not policy paralysis. It is shifting power to bureaucrats and judges, who are less publicly accountable and engage in <a href="https://www.nationalaffairs.com/publications/detail/kludgeocracy-in-america">more obscure and technical forms of policymaking</a>. </p>
<p>After decades of financial decline, the media have fewer reporters who can untangle policy intricacies. It often exacerbates the problem by <a href="https://press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/N/bo22723661.html">covering the conflict of the day</a> rather than detailing the less provocative-looking silent progress of behind-the-scenes policy change. </p>
<p>Tracking the often subterranean ways that policy is actually made is admittedly difficult, but it is essential for both holding policymakers accountable and appreciating the political system’s true capacity for change.</p>
<p><em>This is an updated version of <a href="https://theconversation.com/debunking-the-myth-of-legislative-gridlock-154329">an article</a> originally published on Feb. 17, 2021.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/157038/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jeb Barnes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>The idea that Washington, D.C., is paralyzed by gridlock rests on half-truths about the legislative process and a basic misunderstanding of how contemporary policymaking works.Jeb Barnes, Professor of Political Science, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and SciencesLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.