"Only dull people are brilliant at breakfast"
-Oscar Wilde		 Brilliant at Breakfast title banner "The liberal soul shall be made fat, and he that watereth, shall be watered also himself."
-- Proverbs 11:25
"...you have a choice: be a fighting liberal or sit quietly. I know what I am, what are you?" -- Steve Gilliard, 1964 - 2007

"For straight up monster-stomping goodness, nothing makes smoke shoot out my ears like Brilliant@Breakfast" -- Tata

"...the best bleacher bum since Pete Axthelm" -- Randy K.

"I came here to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum." -- "Rowdy" Roddy Piper (1954-2015), They Live
Saturday, March 05, 2005

The Bush Administration: Screwing Over Americans since 2000®
Posted by Jill | 9:30 PM

This morning I was listening to the Morning Sedition weekend reruns, specifically a discussion on the giant blowjob to the banking industry that is the bankruptcy bill currently being bulldozed through Congress by Republicans.

This bill is a travesty, and any middle class American who supports it ought to have his/her head examined. The Bush Administration is selling this bill as a means to crack down on abuse of the bankruptcy system; focusing on the example of the spendthrift who spends nineteen cards up to the limit and then files for bankruptcy so he can be a deadbeat.

But as Kevin Drum points out, amendments to the bill that would have exempted those who end up bankrupt through no fault of their own, either because of illness, divorce, or other disasters, have been summarily dismissed by Republicans. Those proposed exemptions include:

From Russ Feingold, an amendment that would have allowed senior citizens to protect $75,000 of the value of their homes during bankruptcy proceedings.

From Ted Kennedy, an amendment focused on helping people who are forced into bankruptcy due to major medical expenses.

Also from Ted Kennedy, an amendment that would have protected $150,000 of the value of patients' homes from being seized to pay creditors.

From Daniel Akaka, an amendment to force credit card companies to disclose how long it would take a consumer to pay off his bill making minimum monthly payments, and what the interest rate would be.

From Dick Durbin, an amendment that would have exempted veterans from the most onerous provisions of the bill and prevented creditors from recovering debts from military personnel if the loans had annual percentage rates higher than 36%.


An exemption that's being allowed to stay? You guessed it:

What loopholes have been left in the bill? Answer: the bill does nothing to address the growing use of "asset protection trusts," used by rich people to shield income from bankruptcy proceedings, or to rein in the unlimited use of the homestead exemption, which allows them to shield multimillion dollar homes from bankruptcy courts.


One caller to the show was a fellow who had emergency open-heart surgery and then his insurance company refused to pay on the grounds that the heart condition which was diagnosed when he didn't feel well was a "pre-existing condition." The hospital sued him for $280,000. He hired an attorney, and the insurance company ended up settling with the doctors and hospitals for far less than they would have had to pay up by covering the cost. Under this bill, this fellow would NOT be able to seek any redress. He'd have to pony up the $280,000 if they had to take his house to do it.

As the policy journal Health Affairs reports:

In 2001, 1.458 million American families filed for bankruptcy. To investigate medical contributors to bankruptcy, we surveyed 1,771 personal bankruptcy filers in five federal courts and subsequently completed in-depth interviews with 931 of them. About half cited medical causes, which indicates that 1.9–2.2 million Americans (filers plus dependents) experienced medical bankruptcy. Among those whose illnesses led to bankruptcy, out-of-pocket costs averaged $11,854 since the start of illness; 75.7 percent had insurance at the onset of illness. Medical debtors were 42 percent more likely than other debtors to experience lapses in coverage. Even middle-class insured families often fall prey to financial catastrophe when sick.

[snip]

More than one-quarter cited illness or injury as a specific reason for bankruptcy; a similar number reported uncovered medical bills exceeding $1,000. Some debtors cited more than one medical contributor. Nearly half (46.2 percent) (95 percent confidence interval = 43.5, 48.9) of debtors met at least one of our criteria for “major medical bankruptcy.” Slightly more than half (54.5 percent) (95 percent CI = 51.8, 57.2) met criteria for “any medical bankruptcy.”

[snip]

In our follow-up telephone interviews with 931 debtors, they reported substantial privations. During the two years before filing, 40.3 percent had lost telephone service; 19.4 percent had gone without food; 53.6 percent had gone without needed doctor or dentist visits because of the cost; and 43.0 percent had failed to fill a prescription, also because of the cost. Medical debtors experienced more problems in access to care than other debtors did; three-fifths went without a needed doctor or dentist visit, and nearly half failed to fill a prescription.


So there's the bill that Republicans are going to force down the throats of all Americans. That's what we all have to look forward to. Think about it....The next big Republican push after they succeed in dismantling Social Security will be to dismantle the health care system. They're already pushing a plan in which health care will be removed from the employment system (not altogether a bad thing), but it will be replaced by a system in which individuals will be required to purchase catastrophic illness insurance, but for everything else, you'll pay out of pocket from tax-free health savings accounts. If you're too poor to afford to put money away after paying your rent and food and to clothe your kids, too bad for you. You can lay down and die for all they care.

Another benefit for the wealthy in this bankruptcy bill will be that you will no longer be able to keep your home in the event of bankruptcy -- your creditors will be able to take your house and put you out on the street.

Funny, isn't it, how these so-called "Christians" who run the Republican party hate Darwinism when it comes to scientific study, but they just LOVE Darwinism when it's applied to socioeconomic policy....especially when it means the rich will be able to loot what little people have left in the event of misfortune.

UPDATE: Via Factesque, we hear of an amendment being proposed by Charles Schumer that would specifically bar anti-abortion groups from filing for bankruptcy as a way to avoid paying damages assessed by courts. Interesting that this is even necessary; that Republicans want Americans who lose their jobs, are abandoned by their spouses, or have catastrophic medical expenses, to be utterly screwed for the rest of their lives, but let's not make it hard for anti-abortion activists.

Assholes.
0 comments
Bookmark and Share