Posted on 09/15/2005 10:05:12 AM PDT by visitor
September 14, 2005 Molly Ivins
Bankruptcy law will hurt victims
HERE’S a good idea: Consumer groups and progressive congressfolks have joined in an effort to stop hundreds of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina from being further harmed by the new Bankruptcy Act, scheduled to take effect Oct. 17. This law was notoriously written of, by and for the consumer credit industry, and is particularly onerous for the poor.
The bill was passed with massive support from the Republican leadership in Congress and from a disgusting number of sellout Democrats. While it was being considered in committee earlier this year, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee offered an amendment to protect victims of natural disasters. It was defeated, without debate, on a party-line vote.
Now, Congress has a chance to rethink some of the most punitive parts of the bill. Katrina victims who were planning to file before the new law goes into effect are S.O.L. — where they gonna find a lawyer, let alone an open courthouse?
Under the new law, anyone whose income is over the state median must file under Chapter 13, a more restrictive category that requires some repayment of debt. The new law grants no exemption for natural disaster, even though it’s going to be a little tough for some citizen sitting in the Astrodome who no longer has a home to come up with tax statements, pay stubs, and six months of income and expense data. Let’s see if Congress can manage to open its marble heart on this issue.
Meanwhile, it’s an ill wind that blows no one good, so we should not be surprised to learn the first winner out of the gate on Katrina is none other than the Halliburton Co., whose deserving subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root has already been granted a $29.8 million contract for cleanup work in the wake of Katrina.
Of course, no one would suggest Halliburton and its subsidiaries get government contracts (more than $9 billion for reconstruction work in Iraq, with Pentagon audits thus far showing $1.03 billion in “questioned” costs and $422 million in “unsupported costs”) just because Vice President Cheney is still on the payroll. Heavens no. The veep continues to receive deferred pay from the company he formerly headed — $194,852 last year.
But Cheney has nothing to do with the Halliburton contracts — that, friends, goes through none other than the noted lobbyist and former head of — of all things — the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since Joe Allbaugh, who was Bush’s campaign manger in 2000, left FEMA in December 2002, he has been busy making sure reconstruction contracts in Iraq go to companies that give generously to the Republican Party.
Now, aren’t you ashamed of yourself for thinking there’s something wrong with that? Besides, Allbaugh is now with a big-time Washington lobbying firm, where he also represents Shaw Group Inc., and — viola — Shaw Group, too, already has a $100 million emergency contract from FEMA for housing management and construction, and a $100 million order from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for Katrina repair.
Congress has appropriated over $60 billion in emergency funding for recovery costs, and estimates are the final costs will top $100 billion.
Danielle Brian, director of the Project on Government Oversight, told Reuters, “The government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial interests.”
Now, Ms. Brian, get a grip. Not all the money goes to the big, politically connected firms.
Michael (“You’re doing a heckuva job”) Brown liked to spread federal money around. In fact, Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida was so annoyed by Brownie’s distribution of largesse in Miami after Hurricane Frances that he urged the president to fire Ol’ Brownie last January. What upset Wexler about the $30 million in FEMA checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and appliances was that the hurricane did not affect Miami. It landed 100 miles away.
Some of you may have heard me observe a time or two — going back to when George W. was still governor of Texas — that the trouble with the guy is that while he is good at politics, he stinks at governance.
It bores him, he’s not interested, he thinks government is bad to begin with and everything would be done better if it were contracted out to corporations.
We can now safely assert that W. has stacked much of the federal government with people like himself. And what you get when you put people in charge of government who don’t believe in government and who are not interested in running it well is ... what happened after Hurricane Katrina.
Many a time in the past six years I have bitten my tongue so I wouldn’t annoy people with the always obnoxious observation, “I told you so.” But, dammit it all to hell, I did tell you, and I’ve been telling you since 1994, and I am so sick of this man and everything he represents — all the sleazy, smug, self-righteous graft and corruption and “Christian” moralizing and cynicism and tax cuts for all his smug, rich buddies.
Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United States, please pay attention.
I wish it had come up sooner so that the person who owes me a lot of money couldn't have walked away from it so easily. I'm the victim here.
Now why do I doubt that? And guess what - you still got two more years of him!!!!
The bankruptcy lawyers will soon ride to the rescue of their bums, I mean clients, with heart-rending stories of how they shouldn't have to pay their debts. Hey lawyers, do you like being on the same side as Crazy Molly?
Ivins never disappoints, does she? You forgot the "barf alert".
The simple fact is that the new bankruptcy law only really effects those in the upper half of disposable income. I.e. the Republican base. Those whose means tests put them in the lower half of incomes in their state can go along, business as usual.
This wouldn't be such a bad thing if it was just limited to things like credit card fraud. But God forbid that an American (or his child) in the upper half of income brackets gets a disease that maxes out his health insurance coverage. No out for him- he'll be fighting the hospital creditors for years to come. Yes, you can work out a chapter 13 plan over 3 to 5 years, but the way Chapter 13 defines "disposable income" you're basically living in poverty for years.
I am in the upper half of incomes and will never declare bankruptcy unless some catastrophe like Katrina or a grave illness strikes. But I'd like to know the bankruptcy law would be there for me if such happened. It won't be and that goes against what the bankruptcy law was always about.
Oh, the poor cant pay their bills, how sad....
Here's a lesson:
If you cant PAY bills, don't MAKE bills.
>>What upset Wexler about the $30 million in FEMA checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawnmowers, vacuum cleaners, furniture and appliances was that the hurricane did not affect Miami. It landed 100 miles away.<<
I'm sure what upset Wexler was that he didn't have any control over who got any money.
Ivins is a liar if nothing else.
How can she say the bankruptcy law hurts the "poor," then admit in the next paragraph that the only ones precluded from filing a Chapter 7 (in which all unsecured debts are simply discharged with no requirement of even partial repayment) are those with an income over the state median?
What a nasty demagogue this woman is. She hates those who are working, producing and creating wealth. She hates those who can get the job done. All her sympathy is with those who live beyond their means, then stiff their creditors.
How can she say the bankruptcy law hurts the "poor," then admit in the next paragraph that the only ones precluded from filing a Chapter 7 (in which all unsecured debts are simply discharged with no requirement of even partial repayment) are those with an income over the state median?
What a nasty demagogue this woman is. She hates those who are working, producing and creating wealth. She hates those who can get the job done. All her sympathy is with those who live beyond their means, then stiff their creditors.
I agree, Many were running up a large tab then filing BK to avoid responsiblity trying to keep up with the Joneses
Our debtor divorced his wife to keep her out of liability exposure, and made minmum payments just to get by,this also gave him a year to transfer/deplete all assets to her, then he(and his business) filed BK and couldn't touch her assets since she didn't sign we lost investment to BK
Many are people who overcharge and live beyond their means. The ones with medical bills and major tragedies usually didn't have insurance or enough. Then the ones who lost jobs ?
If you cant PAY bills, don't MAKE bills.
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Businesses should be very careful who they do business with, unless it is on a cash basis...that would avoid alot of this.
"If you cant PAY bills, don't MAKE bills."
I agree with that much, but that's not all the law does. If some kind of personal catastrophe - illness, Katrina, child in legal or drug trouble, divorce, unemployment - etc strikes than there is no more chapter 7 bankruptcy for hard-working Americans in the upper half of income brackets.
This would have been a good law if it was focused upon those who voluntarily spend beyond their means and left bankruptcy for those who face catastrophies. But it doesn't and so it's a bad law. And it's a bad law for the Republican base- it almost exclusively affects those in the upper half of incomes.
Only if his name is Johnson.
You would not believe all the ambulance chasing lawyers on Dallas radio telling deadbeats to get their act together and declare insolvency prior to the new bankruptcy law going into effect.
My rule --> spend less than I make. Works every time. Shortly, all the freeloaders will learn this lesson the hard way.
Hillarious. For some reason, Je$$e Jackson and Molly don't talk about ths guy.
http://www.lademo.org/index.php?display=ShowPage&id=329508
" ... the hurricane did not affect Miami. It landed 100 miles away."
Why not tell the people of Miami who were hit with the 85 MPH winds the hurricane didn't affect them. The hurricane didn't "land" in Okeechobee either but there were hundreds of homes, businesses and other property severely damaged. The hurricanes of last year were so large in area, the distance from the eye had little to do with the spread of damage.
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Molly Ivans is a barf alert.
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