I posted part of this at the end of another thread, but I think its needs it own thread. Two of the centrist groups in our party wrote letters to Dennis Hastert to please bring the bill up for a vote. It was a horrible bill. I wrote about it earlier because it will hurt so many people.
The bankruptcy bill and Blue Dogs and New Dems..Guess what is NOT in the bankruptcy bill. There is a lack of exemptions for the ill, the disabled, the elderly who might have large bills from ill health....nothing to protect their homes and cars.
It does not exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by serious medical problems from means testing. It does not provide protection for medical debt homeowners. Homes and cars could be lost under this new plan if you have medical problems.
It does not preserve existing bankruptcy protections for
individuals experiencing economic distress as caregivers to ill or disabled family members.
There is no provision to insure elderly people in financial trouble who seek bankruptcy could keep their homes. Republicans voted down a provision for it, and 3 Democrats from states with big credit card industries joined them.
Making the minimum payment on a credit card can often cause you to go
further in debt with the credit card company. An amendment was voted down by all Republicans and a few Democrats that would have required this disclosure on the danger of minimum payments.
Here is more on it. Glad to see CNN cover it.
More about what they passed. Here is part of the interview, a very good one with a guy named Scurlock who did a film called Maxxed Out. I wonder if they are worried enough to do something about the people who will lose their homes for medical debt. I am not holding my breath.
From the transcript:
http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0703/11/cnnitm.01.htmlSCURLOCK: Well, you know, if you the numbers, and you look at why people declare bankruptcy and you look at why people are in debt, the only real solution is to never go to the hospital, never get divorced and never lose your job, which I don't I think is that realistic for most people -- and probably never go to college.
Other than that, I think you just have to be very, very wary. You know, a lot of these people get the credit card offers and take them at face value. But if they're getting a credit card offer, it's not because they're responsible or because they're a platinum person or a gold person. You know, it's because they could make money for the credit card company.
WASTLER: James, bang on Congress a little bit. There was a big hearing... SCURLOCK: OK.
WASTLER: ... this week and everything. And they had all the big boy credit card companies come. Oh yes, we promise, we're going to be more transparent with our customers, which is a bunch of malarkey, quite frankly. I know you've been following it carefully, but all of these banks have big lobbying organizations that help get their point of view across in Washington. Is there any realistic chance that we'll get some sort of change out of D.C.?
SCURLOCK: Well, I think the congressmen are still sort of stinging from this bait and switch with bankruptcy reform where they were told that if they passed the bill, about a year-and-a-half ago, that all Americans would get this dividend in the form of lower interest rates. I think they said it was $500 or $600 we were all paying because people were gaming in the bankruptcy system. And nobody has gotten a dividend check yet and I don't think interest rates have come down. So and I think Congress is very angry about this. And you have new -- the Democrats in charge of the committees and oversight are they are really taking these guys to task.
Our Blue Dogs and New Dems fell for that? They wrote the letters because of that belief? And how many will lose their homes and cars because of illness and medical debt.
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