A Perfectly Cromulent Blog

"It's a big old shit sandwich and we're all gonna have to take a bite."

Four more years? The first one's barely started and already we get this:

Erasing medical bills, credit card charges and other debts in bankruptcy soon will become more difficult under landmark legislation that has vaulted its last major hurdle before Senate passage.

The legislation gliding toward congressional passage following Tuesday's procedural vote in the Senate would constitute the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. bankruptcy laws in a quarter-century.

Banks, credit card issuers and retailers have pushed for eight years for bankruptcy revisions that would force more people to repay at least part of their debt. It nearly passed in 2002 — failing when the Senate accepted, but House Republicans rejected, a Democratic amendment barring protesters from using bankruptcy to avoid paying court fines for blocking abortion clinics.

This year, with four more Republican senators, the abortion provision was rejected Tuesday on a 53-46 vote. Later the Senate voted 69-31 to limit further amendments, close the debate and hold a final vote this week.

Those with insufficient assets or income could still file a Chapter 7 bankruptcy, which if approved by a judge erases debts entirely after certain assets are forfeited. But those with income above the state's median income who can pay at least $6,000 over five years — $100 a month — would be forced into Chapter 13, where a judge would then order a repayment plan.

Critics say that's unfair because many people who file for bankruptcy have lost their jobs, or are going to lose them.

Not in the eyes of the idealogues and corporate whores pushing this bill. To them, people filing for bankruptcy belong to the same category of lazy Americans who breed to increase their welfare checks and charge up big screen TVs to their Visa, then laugh all the way to bankruptcy court. It also just happens to catch all those indolent slugs who go bankrupt due to catastrophic illness, or from owing credit card companies who - thanks to this same bill - are now free to charge over 30% for some debt.

According to current law, a bankruptcy judge determines under which chapter of the bankruptcy code a person falls — whether they have to repay some or all of their debt.

Sensing a long-elusive victory at hand, Republican backers exulted Tuesday and urged colleagues to move speedily through remaining Senate deliberations.

"The sooner we finish work in the Senate and get the bill to the House, the sooner our bankruptcy system will be focused as it should be on helping those with real need, and less vulnerable to abuse by consumers who have the ability to repay their debts," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, the bill's primary author.

Except for the wealthy, who are allowed to create trusts to protect assets like homes in some states. Trusts cost a lot of money, meaning you and I are out a house if faced with bankruptcy. An amendment to eliminate this (S.AMDT.42) was defeated, as were these:

S.AMDT.15 - Requiring credit card companies to disclose how long it would take to pay back a debt if the consumer only made minimum payments.

This Administration obviously has little faith in our math skills. First they won't provide accurate figures for the future of Social Security, now this.

S.AMDT.16 - Protecting servicemen and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy, among other things.

I guess those yard signs are wrong: you can support the troops or you can support President Bush. Supporting both woud seem to be symptomatic of someone who'd had their corpus callosum severed.

S.AMDT.17 - Providing a homestead floor for the elderly. S.AMDT.29 - Protection for medical debt homeowners.
S.AMDT.32 - Preserving existing bankruptcy protections for individuals experiencing economic distress as caregivers to ill or disabled family members.

"Fuck the old and the sick" is going to be an interesting campaign position for these guys in 2006.

S.AMDT.37 - Exempting debtors from means testing if their financial problems were caused by identity theft.

Serves them right for leaving their identity out there all sexy like that. They were probably asking for it.

S.AMDT.47 - To keep harassing and violent abortion protestors from hiding behind bankruptcy laws.

Pro-lifers are swiftly becoming the most coddled group in the country, legislation wise, though you wouldn't know it the way they bemoan how oppressed they are and equate their struggle with that of Martin Luther King, Jr.

S.AMDT.49 - Protecting employees from being deprived of earnings and retirement if a business files for bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, they'll keep bailing out the Enrons and Worldcoms who run their companies in the ground after buying ivory backscratchers and plundering their emplotyees' 401(k)s.

Never mind, I just saw some queers who want to get married. Forget I said anything.