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On February 8 of that year, a Cheyenne delegation, headed by Chief Black Kettle, along with some Arapahoe leaders, accepted a new settlement with the Federal government. The Native Americans ceded most of their land but secured a 600-square mile reservation and annuity payments. The delegation reasoned that continued hostilities would jeopardize their bargaining power. In the decentralized political world of the tribes, Black Kettle and his fellow delegates represented only part of the Cheyenne and Arapahoe tribes. Many did not accept this new agreement, called the Treaty of Fort Wise.

for the complete article: history.com

1. A smaller cost-of-living adjustment

Each year, Social Security recipients are entitled to a cost-of-living adjustment or COLA.

This serves as a raise for Social Security beneficiaries, many of whom rely on their monthly checks as their primary source of income.

The purpose of COLAs is to allow seniors to retain their buying power in the face of inflation (rising prices of goods and services)

However, due to low inflation in recent years, COLAs increases have been very small.

For example, in 2020, the COLA increase was 1.6%.

Social Security benefits will see a Cost of Living Adjustment of 1.3% in 2021. On Average, that equals an additional $20 a month.

This will increase the average Social Security retirement benefits check from $1,523 to $1,543.

Many retirees won’t see the impact of this increase in their pockets, however.

That’s because this $20 a month increase will likely be offset in part by higher Medicare premiums and deductibles in 2021.

For reference, here are the COLA increases over the last 10 years:

Social Security COLA History

Here’s a look at COLA increases since 2011.

2020: 1.6%

2019: 2.8%

2018: 2%

2017: 0.3%

2016: No increase.

2015: 1.7%

2014: 1.5%

2013: 1.7%

2012: 1.7%

2011: 3.6%

As you can see, the COLA increases have been stingy, especially when one considers the rising cost of healthcare, including Medicare.

Medicare costs to rise

Medicare cost increases are one of the biggest financial burdens on seniors. 2021 will be no different.

Here’s how much Medicare costs will increase in 2021:

• The standard monthly premium for Medicare Part B will be $148.50, up from $144.60 in 2020.
• The annual deductible for Medicare Part B will be $203 — a $5 increase.
• The Medicare Part A inpatient hospital deductible will be $1,484 — a $76 increase.

2. The earnings limit for working retirees will go up

If you claim Social Security retirement benefits before reaching your full retirement age (FRA) and also continue working, continue reading.

As you are probably aware, the Social Security Administration will withhold some of your benefits if your income exceeds “the earnings limit”.

In 2021, the Social Security earnings limit increases to the following:

• From $18,240 to $18,960 if you will reach full retirement age after 2021
• From $48,600 to $50,520 if you will reach full retirement age in 2021
• No limit on earnings if you are full retirement age or older for the entire year.

3. Earnings subject to Social Security tax will increase

The maximum amount of a worker’s income that is subject to Social Security payroll taxes will rise from $137,700 in 2020 to $142,800 in 2021.

That means that you will pay Social Security taxes on any income you make up $142,800 in 2021.

However, any additional income you earn beyond the $142,800 will not be subject to Social Security payroll taxes.

Remember that there is no earnings limit on Medicare taxes.

This means every dollar of earned income is subject to Medicare tax.

Finally, the Social Security payroll tax rate will remain the same in 2021.

This means employees pay 6.2% and employers pay another 6.2%, for a total of 12.4% for the self-employed.

Self-employed individuals pay the entire 12.4% in Social Security taxes.

4. Lifetime work credits Amount Go Up

How much you have to earn per quarter to qualify for Social Security retirement benefits will go up.

To receive Social Security retirement benefits, most people need to accumulate at least 40 ‘credits’ during their working lifetime.

Currently, you can earn up to four credits per year if you work and pay Social Security taxes.

In 2021, the minimum about you have to earn a year to get the four credits for that year was $1470, an increase of $60 from 2020.

5. The Full Retirement Age will go up

As has been happening in recent years, the Full Retirement Age (FRA) for Social Security benefits is going up again.

In 2021, the full retirement age going higher by two months, to 66 years and 10 months for those born in 1959.

The full retirement age is the age when you are entitled to 100 percent of your Social Security benefits.

If you were born between 1943 and 1954, your full retirement age is 66.

However, if you were born in 1955, it is 66 and 2 months.

For those born between 1956 and 1959, it gradually increases, and for those born in 1960 or later, it is 67.

The earliest a recipient can start collecting Social Security retirement benefits is age 62.

It is important to note that seniors who claim Social Security before their full retirement age receive reduced payments.

For example, if you turn 62 and start receiving Social Security benefits in 2021, your monthly benefits will be 29.17% less than you will receive at your FRA.

socialsecurityportal.com

Oath of Office

I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter: So help me God.History of the Oath

At the start of each new Congress, in January of every odd-numbered year, the entire House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate performs a solemn and festive constitutional rite that is as old as the Republic. While the oath-taking dates back to the First Congress in 1789, the current oath is a product of the 1860s, drafted by Civil War-era members of Congress intent on ensnaring traitors.

The Constitution contains an oath of office only for the president. For other officials, including members of Congress, that document specifies only that they “shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation to support this constitution.” In 1789, the First Congress reworked this requirement into a simple fourteen-word oath: “I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the Constitution of the United States.”

For nearly three-quarters of a century, that oath served nicely, although to the modern ear it sounds woefully incomplete. Missing are the soaring references to bearing “true faith and allegiance;” to taking “this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion;” and to “well and faithfully” discharging the duties of the office.

The outbreak of the Civil War quickly transformed the routine act of oath-taking into one of enormous significance. In April of 1861, a time of uncertain and shifting loyalties, President Abraham Lincoln ordered all federal civilian employees within the executive branch to take an expanded oath. When Congress convened for a brief emergency session in July, members echoed the president’s action by enacting legislation requiring employees to take the expanded oath in support of the Union. This oath is the earliest direct predecessor of the modern oath.

When Congress returned for its regular session in December 1861, members who believed that the Union had as much to fear from northern traitors as southern soldiers again revised the oath, adding a new first section known as the “Ironclad Test Oath.” The war-inspired Test Oath, signed into law on July 2, 1862, required “every person elected or appointed to any office … under the Government of the United States … excepting the President of the United States” to swear or affirm that they had never previously engaged in criminal or disloyal conduct. Those government employees who failed to take the 1862 Test Oath would not receive a salary; those who swore falsely would be prosecuted for perjury and forever denied federal employment.

The 1862 oath’s second section incorporated a more polished and graceful rendering of the hastily drafted 1861 oath. Although Congress did not extend coverage of the Ironclad Test Oath to its own members, many took it voluntarily. Angered by those who refused this symbolic act during a wartime crisis, and determined to prevent the eventual return of prewar southern leaders to positions of power in the national government, congressional hard-liners eventually succeeded by 1864 in making the Test Oath mandatory for all members.

The Senate then revised its rules to require that members not only take the Test Oath orally, but also that they “subscribe” to it by signing a printed copy. This condition reflected a wartime practice in which military and civilian authorities required anyone wishing to do business with the federal government to sign a copy of the Test Oath. The current practice of newly sworn senators signing individual pages in an elegantly bound oath book dates from this period.

As tensions cooled during the decade following the Civil War, Congress enacted private legislation permitting particular former Confederates to take only the second section of the 1862 oath. An 1868 public law prescribed this alternative oath for “any person who has participated in the late rebellion, and from whom all legal disabilities arising therefrom have been removed by act of Congress.”  Northerners immediately pointed to the new law’s unfair double standard that required loyal Unionists to take the Test Oath’s harsh first section while permitting ex-Confederates to ignore it. In 1884, a new generation of lawmakers quietly repealed the first section of the Test Oath, leaving intact today’s moving affirmation of constitutional allegiance.Taking the Oath

At the beginning of a new term of office, senators-elect take their oath of office from the presiding officer in an open session of the Senate before they can begin to perform their legislative activities. From the earliest days, the senator-elect—both the freshman and the returning veteran—has been escorted down the aisle by another senator to take the oath from the presiding officer. Customarily, the other senator from the senator-elect’s state performs that ritual. Occasionally, the senator-elect chooses a senator from another state, either because the same-state colleague is absent or because the newly elected senator has sharp political differences with that colleague. Such public displays of these differences do not go unnoticed by journalists.

A ban on photography in the Senate chamber has led senators to devise an alternative way of capturing this highly symbolic moment in their Senate careers. In earlier times, the Vice President invited newly sworn senators and their families into his Capitol office for a reenactment for home-state photographers. Beginning in the late 1970s, following the restoration of the Old Senate Chamber to its appearance at the time it went out of service in 1859, reenactment ceremonies have been held in that deeply historical setting, resplendent in crimson and gold.

Source: senate.gov