dougs digs

once in a while you get shown the light in the strangest of places if you look at it right

4.14.2005

be sure you can afford to be sick or unemployed

A bipartisan majority in the U.S. House of Representatives is set to pass a bill today that will make it more difficult for average Americans suffering from financial misfortune to declare bankruptcy. The credit card industry, which took in $30 billion in profits last year and doled out more than $7.8 million to candidates in the 2004 election cycle , has lobbied relentlessly for the bill, pushing the fiction that bankruptcies occur because of "irresponsible consumerism" (in bill sponsor Charles Grassley's (R-IA) words). In fact, "ninety percent of all bankruptcies are triggered by the loss of a job, high medical bills or divorce ." In recent years, personal bankruptcy rates have shot to record highs amid a weak labor market and declining health insurance coverage. The bill is set to create several "new hurdles " that will make it harder and more expensive for Americans to recover from such episodes, while failing to stop the actual abuses that plague the system.


|| doug, 15:19

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