Yellow Dog

Remember when Republicans passed the bankruptcy law that was a give-away to banks and financial institutions? The fact that bankers praised the bill while consumer groups balked should tell us someting. Thanks to the fat cat Republicans, the law goes into effect on Oct. 17 and will have repercussions for those people whose lives have been disrupted by Hurrican Katrina.

From the Washington Post:

Katrina's victims "will be the first guinea pigs through the bankruptcy system," said Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard Law professor and critic of the new law. "Some of these people will be able to persuade the courts that the new laws have as yet unseen flexibility, but it costs time and money to litigate those questions. Survivors of a disaster have neither."

Bradford W. Botes, a bankruptcy lawyer whose firm has several offices in the South, said that initially most Katrina victims will not even be thinking about bankruptcy.

But in four or more months, he said, when creditors start demanding payments and when the victims have yet to find jobs or jobs that pay what they were making before the storm, bankruptcy will seem like an attractive option, Botes said.

It's not just Katrina's victims who will consider bankruptcy, Botes said, but also consumers facing higher gasoline and heating bills. "If they are already on a tight line, that will push them over," he said.

What kind of morally bankrupt administration would institute policies that have increased the poverty level over the past four years (while giving tax cuts to the richest Americans) and then cut off all financial safety nets for struggling Americans? The same administration that is probably relieved that the tens of thousands of dead in New Orleans won't be able to file for bankruptcy. Sickening.