Bankruptcy Bill Set for Passage; Victory for Bush

[rodeodance]

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/09/business/09bankruptcy.html?th

Bankruptcy Bill Set for Passage; Victory for Bush

By STEPHEN LABATON
The bill would disqualify many families from taking advantage of the more generous provisions of the current bankruptcy code.

March 9, 2005


..........The bill would disqualify many families from taking advantage of the more generous provisions of the current bankruptcy code that permit them to extinguish their debts for a "fresh start." It would also impose significant new costs on those seeking bankruptcy protection and give lenders and businesses new legal tools for recovering debts.

......But critics said the measure was a thinly disguised gift to banks and credit card companies, which, they contend, are largely responsible for the high rate of bankruptcies because they heavily promote credit cards and loans that often come with large and largely unseen fees for late payments. They said that the measure would impose new obstacles on many middle-income families seeking desperately needed protection from creditors, and that it would take far longer for those families to start over after suffering serious illnesses, unemployment and other calamities........


"This bankruptcy bill is mean-spirited and unfair," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts. "In anything like its present form, it should and will be an embarrassment to anyone who votes for it. It's a bonanza for the credit card companies, which made $30 billion in profits last year, and a nightmare for the poorest of the poor and the weakest of the weak."...

The main lobbying forces for the bill - a coalition that included Visa, MasterCard, the American Bankers Association, MBNA America, Capital One, Citicorp, the Ford Motor Credit Company and the General Motors Acceptance Corporation - spent more than $40 million in political fund-raising efforts and many millions more on lobbying efforts since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that studies the role of money in the political process. By definition, the critics of the legislation had limited lobbying resources.........

[katmondoo]

1. As usual they (the senators) will be patting themselves on the back,

giving each other high fives, laughing and chatting away as they vote once again to screw the American people.

[bluestateguy]

2. I think an amendment should have been offered

To exempt non-Bush voters. In fact, I have come to believe that such amendments should be offered to all legislation before the Congress.

[eShirl]

3. "it should and *WILL BE* an embarrassment to anyone who votes for it."

at least we can use the repukes' voting record against them next election

[William Seger]

4. "By definition, the critics of the legislation ..."

"... had limited lobbying resources."

F***ing Republican "values" at work.

[tanyev]

5. Victory for Bush-

A resounding defeat for America.

[susu369]

13. A resounding defeat for turnips

you can't get blood from a turnip.

If one doesn't have the money to pay, they simply cannot pay - bankruptcy or no bankruptcy. That part about giving the credit card companies more "legal tools" to collect is what really concerns me.

Poor people with perpetual debt....why does debtor prisons come to mind.

[bunkerbuster1]

21. Debtor prisons will be next.

Work off your debt during the day with an ankle bracelet, back to a minimum-security cell at night.

It'll be an important labor source in the next decade, I imagine.

[solinvictus]

6. What about a judge ruling against the law?

Couldn't a sitting judge declare the law unconstitional if it's challenged in the right court?

[Mandate My Ass]

9. That's what I'm hoping for too

I know there have been legal challenges to mandatory minimum sentencing based on the premise that Congress overstepped its boundaries by putting constraints on judges' discretion. This violates the separation of powers and due process. The bankruptcy law similarly prevents judicial leniency by stating that income is the only factor which can be used to determine whether someone can file for Chapter 7 or be forced into Chapter 13. It appears blatantly unconstitutional to me but I'm not a lawyer.

[charlie]

7. Americans love getting boned in the ass

Good thing too, there's plenty more of it coming. At least 4 years minus 2 months worth.

[Mountainman]

8. We should all refuse any offer of credit from any credit card source.

I have one credit card that I owe way too much on but I get credit offers daily in the mail. I tear them up even before I open them. After I pay this card off I will never again borrow money from source that charges interest on the unpaid balance. We should all only have amortized loans like car loans or home loans.

If enough of would learn not to have these cards it would be better for us. I've learned my lesson but it has taken a long while. If I can't afford to pay cash for something, how in the hell can I afford to borrow and pay interest on top of it to get something. It doesn't make sense.

Just stop using credit cards unless you can afford to pay off the balance monthly.

[tanyev]

14. I love to get credit card applications!

I send all sorts of educational information back to them in their pre-paid envelopes.

[AnnInLa]

10. Freeps reactions are mixed

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1358749/posts




I cancelled my MBNA card yesterday, and made sure they knew the reason why.

[Emboldened Chimp]

20. They seem pretty upset by it...

as well they should, since CC companies could give a damn who they voted for. Everyone--democrat and republican--gets fucked by this bill.

[lancdem]

23. They voted for him

so I don't want to hear any bitching from them.

[durablend]

24. Still in all...

It's interesting to hear from more and more of them that their "party of choice" is fucking themselves over with every one of these anti-citizen/pro-big business things they pass.

[tom_paine]

29. Big deal, THE PARTY will only redircet their anger towards

Enemies of the State. You know, Jews, Liberals, lacks, College Professors, Environmentalists, Homosexuals.

It should be very inetersting when the economic calamity that is coming (for which the Busheviks are VERY excited because it will swell the ranks of the Amermacht as well as making their Sturmtruppen eversomuchmore angry and malleable when pointed towards the Enemies of the State who are responsible for their troubles.

Let me be blunt, Amerikans in general are now programmed to respond as Nazis to adverse times. Oh, not in the exact same ways (that might cause some people to wake up and Totalitarianism ALWAYS sheds it's old skin after each incarnation is discredited) and we will always be Kinder and Gentler than the original Nazis and our oppressions less brutal and direct.

But, if our thin veneer of civilzation (ever thinner since the Busheviks went to the Nazi Playbook in the late 1970s) is stripped away by a major terrorist attack or economic catastrophe, watch out.

And if it should happen 20 years from now, when those of us who lived most of our lioves in Old America are old or dead, the likelihood of some really horrific shit increase from the Caligulan and Nero generations.

[bemildred]

11. Go bankrupt now, avoid the rush. nt

[AllegroRondo]

12. Make sure this comes up in 2006 elections

make a note of all the amendments that Repubs voted against, bring it back to haunt them.

off the top of my head:

voted against bankruptcy protection for soldiers in combat

voted FOR allowing people who block abortion clinics to dodge court fines by declaring bankruptcy

[johnaries]

16. Voted against raising the minimum wage. n/t

[AllegroRondo]

30. Voted against protection for single mothers

who are bankrupt due to non-payment of child support.

[Straight Shooter]

15. Those already in a debt quagmire are SOL. But for others there is hope.

We need to really educate people around us of the effects of this new legislation, particularly those who wander around in political ignorance. The main point that I think should be driven home is how credit card companies will penalize them, or at least have the option to do so, simply for a utility payment or other installment payment being late, that that's how closely monitored personal information is becoming. It is creepy.

Credit cards are no longer useful. They have become like a knife which has a sharp edge no matter where you handle it. So, handle it very very carefully.

[BlueInRed]

17. Call your House reps if they are on this list

There's a "Greatest" Thread (by madfloridian) that shows these people intend to support the bill in the House, all are apparently DLC/New Dems. If they are your rep, please call and grouse at them for this horrid stance.

Rep. Ellen O. Tauscher
Rep. Adam Smith
Rep. Ron Kind
Rep. Artur Davis
Rep. Carolyn McCarthy
Rep. John Larson
Rep. Stephanie Herseth
Rep. Dennis Moore
Rep. Mike McIntyre
Rep. Joe Crowley
Rep. Jay Israel
Rep. David Wu
Rep. Diane Hooley
Rep. Melissa Bean
Rep. Jim Davis
Rep. Harold E. Ford, Jr.
Rep. Ed Case
Rep. Jay Inslee
Rep. Shelley Berkeley
Rep. Gregory W. Meeks

[Javaman]

18. Another example of Ivory Tower politics...

These people are so removed from the plight of the average person. They don't give a shit. If they really did, they would also included in this bill a cap on interest rates that credit card companies and loan companies could charge.

So what is next, debtors Prison? Just wait for it folks. I predict a future where in a person who gets in a wreck, out of work, thus can't pay their bills and is sent to prison for failure to pay.

The democrats that voted for passage of this bill are the lowest form of repuke wanna-be's I have ever seen. They should be ashamed of themselves. They drank the kool-ade in big gulps and had shit eating grins as it went down.

Bastards, everyone of them.

[Guckert]

19. Whats next? the end of paid lunch breaks, 13 year old workers??

Who knows with this bunch of losers in the White House.

[Julius Civitatus]

22. Welcome to the CREDIT SERFDOM States of America

a new economic system where the workers get saddled with unmanageable amounts of credit and interest rates, and are forced into peonage to pay those bills for the rest of their natural lives.

And the best part of it? THERE'S NO WAY OUT!
This bill makes sure that even in the most excruciating of circumstances, you will be FORCED to pay every penny, even if the debt was caused by unfortunate circumstances (medical emergencies, etc.)

PS: the ONLY way out of this peonage system that this new bill allows is reserved EXCLUSIVELY to the owners of mega corporations. Surprise, surprise. According to this monstrosity of a bill, Average Joe will be forced to pay every penny back even in the most horrible of circumstances. On the other hand, fat cats and con artists like Ken Lay could keep all their precious possessions if they filed bankruptcy.

We are deep into the second Robber Barons Era.

[madmark]

25. We are about to experience a housing bubble correction,

sustained and more severe oil price shocks, dollar value drops, and interest rate spikes. Coupled with this bill, substantial numbers of Americans will be permanently financially crippled. It is a quiet neutron bomb to the middle class.

[Robert Oak]

26. yup, should be interesting w/ the economy collapses

then no one can get out of their crushing debt.

But the thing that most distrubs me is how clearly our representatives
do what the corporations want, not what the people want.

This one is a classic.

[shantipriya]

27. Bankruptcy Bill

Does this mean the interest rates charged by the Credit Card companies will now come down drastically? Because one reason for the astronomical rates charged by the Credit Card ussuers was to compensate them for defaults and deliquecies. Just a thought.

[CBHagman]

28. I think we should expect that about the same time that...

...we find Judge Crater and Jimmy Hoffa, and Hugh Hefner joins the "True Love Waits" crowd.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

31. I'm not into suicide by holding my breath.

[Zorra]

32. If 1/4 to 1/2 of all the people in credit card debt stopped paying off

their credit card bills all at once, would that crash the system and drive the credit card companies into bankruptcy? Would the CC companies be hamstrung by the overwhelming legal and other costs by fruitlessly attempting to collect debts from people that did not have any resources to collect?

Heh. They would fully deserve it.

From the posted article:

"The main lobbying forces for the bill - a coalition that included Visa, MasterCard, the American Bankers Association, MBNA America, Capital One, Citicorp, the Ford Motor Credit Company and the General Motors Acceptance Corporation - spent more than $40 million in political fund-raising efforts and many millions more on lobbying efforts since 1989, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan organization that studies the role of money in the political process. By definition, the critics of the legislation had limited lobbying resources........."