When the left and the right are upset over the same thing, you gotta figure it's a bad, bad idea.
But the bankruptcy bill is steaming toward approval, and not all the grassroots anger in the world seems like it is going to derail it. The Senate passed it today 74-25, and the obedient and sheep-like House can be expected to follow suit next month.
Economist Paul Krugman wrote:
"The bankruptcy bill was written by and for credit card companies, and the industry's political muscle is the reason it seems unstoppable. But the bill also fits into the broader context of what Jacob Hacker, a political scientist at Yale, calls 'risk privatization': a steady erosion of the protection the government provides against personal misfortune, even as ordinary families face ever-growing economic insecurity."
From the Guardian:
"Opponents say it would fall hard on low-income workers, single mothers, minorities and the elderly and would remove a safety net for those who have lost their jobs or face big medical bills."
Sen. Edward Kennedy said:
"The bankruptcy courts are filled with cases of hardworking single mothers who were pushed over the financial brink because they failed to get the child support they deserve. Yet this bill would only tighten the screws, looking to squeeze out a few more dollars for the credit card companies.''
But leaving those usual suspects from the left aside, we've got some angst from the right now as well. Digby and Atrios both quoted a right wing blogger as posting:
"Conservatism must mean something more than simply doing what pleases big business."
Said another in the same thread:
"I'd remind all my brother and sister freepers that Bankruptcy protection is in the Constitution. I don't know what we are going to do with people who can neither pay nor discharge their debts. But I do know the protection to file bankruptcy was put in the Constitution by our founders because they had seen the useless hell of debtor's prisons in the old country."
So, given this rare instance of the left and right halves of the blogosphere seeing eye to eye on something, the sky is falling, hell has frozen over, pigs are flying... you get the picture. Run, do not walk, over to Politology and find out what you can do to influence this vote. It's a last-ditch effort and almost certainly doomed, but I'm guessing this convergence of opinion will never, ever happen again, and that's got to mean something.
And if that's not enough to motivate you, realize this: Half the people who file for bankruptcy protection don't do it because they bought too many pairs of shoes at the Imelda Marcos Shoe Salon, nor because they blew it at the track. They file because of medical bills that devastated them and their families. And THREE QUARTERS of them had medical insurance, so don't think it can't happen to you. This isn't about deadbeats, it's about Christmas for the credit card industry, and big, corporate money talking.
Said researcher David U. Himmelstein, MD of Harvard Medical School:
"Most were average Americans who happened to get sick. Health insurance offered little protection. Families with coverage faced unaffordable co-payments, deductibles, and bills for uncovered items like physical therapy, psychiatric care, and prescription drugs. And even the best job-based health insurance often vanished when prolonged illness caused job loss -- precisely when families needed it most. Too often, private health insurance is an umbrella that melts in the rain."
He went on to say that in the two years before they filed for bankruptcy 40 percent lost telephone service, 19 percent went without food, 54 percent went without needed doctor or dentist visits because of cost, 43 percent did not fill prescriptions because of cost, and 15 percent had taken out second or third mortgages to pay for medical expenses.
"The debtors' narratives 'painted a picture of families arriving at the bankruptcy courthouse emotionally and financially exhausted, hoping to stop the collection calls, save their homes, and stabilize their economic circumstances,' he writes. 'Several had used credit cards to charge medical bills they had no hope of paying'."
Another researcher who has been looking at bankruptcy for over 20 years, Elizabeth Warren of Harvard Law School, said:
"The American middle class is solid and secure and prosperous -- we are unlike anything ever known in history -- yet American families live just one illness or accident away from complete financial collapse."
Yeah, let's make life harder on those folks, and much, much easier on the companies who practice predatory lending and deliberately obscure the terms on which they are offering credit. After all, who gives more money to political candidates: families who can't even keep their phones turned on and who are going without food in order to pay their medical bills, or the ones who have a special credit program custom-designed for people with bad credit?
Like I said.... just plain, ugly meanness. With a tasty chaser of greed and self-interest.
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