I work in the area, read significant portions of the bill, and tried to keep up with the amendments, and I have to tell you that I cannot tell you what planet Frist is coming from on these comments because they are almost all complete bs. About 5% of the cases I see could be considered abusive. The balance are caused by divorce, illness, injury, job layoff and entrepreneurial failure in that order. The bill will have the practical net effect of causing substantial numbers of insolvent Americans to not obtain debt discharges and these Americans will no longer be able to function effectively in the economy. I am already figuring out how to make a lot of more money off the new law changes than I am under the current law. MBNA et al will make more short terms profits. We are the winners. However, it will be awful for the macroeconomy of the country.
This bill is an unmitigated disaster. Credit card companies have lent an obscene amount of people money under one set of rules, now they don't like what's going on, so they decide to change the rules half way into the game. This is putting the powerful over the people.
In other words, people who are spending more than they can afford. Many of us have had times in our lives when we have had to cut spending because of some adversity. Most of us do it.
I don't have a lot of sympathy for people who think they "deserve" to have all of the things they can't afford.