Moral Values Bankruptcy

Big Business is winning even more battles in Washington. Just yesterday the Senate debated and denied a bunch of ammendments to a Bankruptcy overhaul bill.

This editorial sheds some light on the bill's shortcummings.

The bill would create a means test that compares a consumer's income and expenses, thereby changing the current law, which allows consumers to protect selected assets and escape the full repayment of their debts. Bankruptcy courts could require bigger repayment plans. While this might deal with outright schemers, it would only worsen a raft of real-life problems suffered by single mothers, the elderly and working families who suffer financial disasters because of emergency medical costs.

The Democrats' attempts to protect them were defeated yesterday. The same G.O.P.-led majority doomed another worthy amendment that would have exempted from the means test military personnel who fell into bankruptcy in their civilian lives after being called to fight in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Contrast that with the bill's gaping "millionaire's loophole," detailed by Gretchen Morgenson of The Times. The bill spares this popular gimmick, which lets wealthy people file for bankruptcy yet still protect major resources in five states that cater to sheltering assets from creditors in special trusts.

Another article tells us that the Democrats got shafted on a simple measure such as this:

By another 59-40 tally, the Senate defeated a Democratic proposal to require that credit card statements show how long it would take the consumer to pay off his or her debt by making only the minimum monthly payment, and what the total interest charges would be.

So much for supporting the troops.

So much for supporting your tired, your poor, your huddled masses.

So much for keeping "lawyers from shopping around for friendly local venues."

FTR, I am not in favor of letting people get away with not paying their debts. But somehow to me bankruptcy court doesn't seem to be overloaded with cases of Bankruptcy Fraud that would benefit from this so called "means test" is it?