Firebombing and Loansharking Protection Act of 2005
At an Bush inauguration ball, Rich Little joked, "The War on Poverty is Over, the Poor people LOST!" Has there ever been legislation as blatantly cruel in its intent as the bankruptcy bill that has or is on the verge of passing the Senate? It would better be called by it's real name, the Firebombing and Loansharking Protection Advocy Act of 2005, that directly transfers all money from the poor and middle class to wealthy individuals and mammoth corporations. Congress may just as well pass a law allowing collections agents from Visa to walk into your house and smack you in the head and take your wallet and sack your home. Warren Zevon was amazing, "Send lawyers, guns, and money/The shit has hit the fan..."
The vote on cloture was not even close 69-31. Speaking of which, the Credit Card Corps certainly earned their money today: Senators Tom Carper (D-Delaware), Joe Biden (D-Delaware), Ben Nelson (D-Nebraska) and Tim Johnson (D-South Dakota) all voted for cloture. Long-time fence-sitters Senators Mary Landrieu (D-Louisiana) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Arkansas) also got in the act, as did someone we thought was a Consumer Champion: Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL). As expected not a single Republican voted against cloture. And Lieberman also signs up for the War on the Poor with his vote for cloture.
Supporters of the bill are determined to ignore the empirical data that shows about 50% of bankruptcies are traceable to medical emergencies (and about 90% stem from illness, divorce, job loss or deaths in the family) and that this bill would disproportionately harm those who go broke through no fault of their own. Instead, they mouth empty platitudes about “morality” and “responsibility,” as if it was immoral and irresponsible to have a heart attack or get laid off. If you, as an individual, incur too much debt, whether that's from credit card spending sprees or your husband's brain cancer, filing for bankruptcy will no longer be a kind of protection from homelessness. In fact, the bill specifically applies a "means test" to income without regard to why bankruptcy may be necessary, like the aforementioned brain cancer. So individuals whose income and assets fall above some arbitrary line would have to file under Chapter 13, which allows for creditors to sodomize you and leave you naked in the hole where your house once stood with more debt to be paid. The kinder, gentler Chapter 7 fucks your credit, but gets rid of all the debt, but for most people, that'll be off the table.
There is no justification for this bill beyond some vague idea of "abuse" of personal bankruptcy, which occurs in such a low percentage of filers that it'd be like banning cars because some people drive drunk. The bill is worse than the Patriot Act - fuck, it's worse than the Espionage and Sedition Acts because at least one could wrap one's brain around the idea that someone, somewhere was so insane that they believed these were good for national security. With the bankruptcy bill, there's none of that.
And the Republicans (and their enabling Democrats) aren't even trying to justify this. There's no moral, biblical reasoning, like if a gay marriage amendment passed. It's punishment, pure and simple, for daring to not be rich when you incur enough debt to need bankruptcy. This blame-the-victim approach is one of the main thrusts of conservatism, from the prosecution of drug users to their desire to outlaw abortion.
Finally, of course, this is a pay-off to the credit card companies, those motherfuckers, whose executives oughta be treated like Pablo Escobar and hunted down. For what is the credit card but a temptation, a crack-pipe-like delivery device that promises you satisfaction with little risk for those who can handle it. Why not make credit card addiction a forgivable offense like, say, slot machine or oxcontin addiction? MBNA, Capitol One, Citibank, those depraved assholes are the Axis of Greed. As Tony Soprano might mutter, those guys would fuck over their own mothers if it meant more power, glory, money, whatever.
The bankruptcy bill is class warfare in its purest form: it states that the poor and middle class are bad and that the rich are good. And maybe it's time to start considering how we respond to such blatant, intentionally barbarous acts by those in power.
UPDATE: Yesterday, the Senate version of the bankruptcy bill passed with flying colors. What's just as important as the fact that the bill passed was the final box score: 74 - 25. Here's a list of the Democratic Party members who just don't get it: Blanche Lincoln (Arkansas), David Pryor (Arkansas), Ken Salazar (Colorado), Joe Biden (MBNA), Tom Carper (MBNA), Bill Nelson (Florida), Daniel Inouye (Hawaii), Evan Bayh (Indiana), Mary Landrieu (Louisiana), Debbie Stabenow (Michigan), Max Baucus (Montana), Ben Nelson (Nebraska), Harry Reid (Nevada), Jeff Bingaman (New Mexico), Hillary Clinton (New York, abstain), Kent Conrad (North Dakota), Tim Johnson (South Dakota), Robert Byrd (West Virginia), Herb Kohl (Wisconsin).
I would urge a howling mob with pitchforks and torches waiting for them outside of the Capitol Building and surrounding their offices when they go home.
