With the 2005 bankruptcy bill, the credit card companies and banking industry got the best free-for-all since (McCain economic adviser) Phil Gramm led the charge to repeal the Glass-Stegall Act and open the way for the current banking industry meltdown.
This bill, sponsored by Republican Chuck Grassley in the Senate, once tried to sneak into law during the Clinton administration but Clinton had the decency to veto it.
Here's some of the criticism of the bill at the time from the Washington Post:
When this bill came through the Senate, Democratic Senator Durbin (Ill) proposed an amendment that would protect service men and women filing bankruptcy from losing their homes.
Here's how McCain voted, as opposed to Obama:
McCain did vote on a later amendment for servicemen, but as you can see the scope has narrowed quite a bit:
Several other amendments were proposed to this bill...
Here's a particularly telling one. Think ENRON.
And on the bill itself, S. 256:
Source
Obama recently had words about McCain siding with the banking industry, and here's the McCain campaign response.
What Mr. Bounds doesn't do here is explain McCain's reasons for voting for this bill, and against all the amendments that seem pretty fair and legitimate to me.
One last postscript on the bill:
Source.
This bill, sponsored by Republican Chuck Grassley in the Senate, once tried to sneak into law during the Clinton administration but Clinton had the decency to veto it.
Here's some of the criticism of the bill at the time from the Washington Post:
Quote:
| Consumer advocacy groups and many Democrats, who fought the legislation, disagree, arguing that lenders' liberal credit policies and aggressive sales practices have been equally responsible for putting many Americans over their heads in debt. They say the new legislation would be too harsh on individuals driven into debt by job loss, sickness, divorce or military duty. That is especially unfair, they say, because the bill would preserve loopholes that enable wealthy individuals who file for bankruptcy to shield unlimited amounts of money in complex trusts and in multimillion-dollar homes in states including Texas and Florida. "The big winner under the new law will be credit card issuers, whose reckless and abusive lending practices have driven many Americans to the brink of bankruptcy," said Travis B. Plunkett, lobbyist for the nonprofit Consumer Federation of America. "Now that Americans in bankruptcy will have to pay more back to creditors, they have a right to expect that credit card companies will lower their interest rates and fees. We will be watching credit card companies closely to see if they will become more responsible corporate citizens in return for this unprecedented gift from Congress." |
Here's how McCain voted, as opposed to Obama:
Quote:
| Senate Amendment 16: To protect servicemembers and veterans from means testing in bankruptcy, to disallow certain claims by lenders charging usurious interest rates to servicemembers, and to allow servicemembers to exempt property based on the law of the State of their premilitary residence. Obama: For McCain: Against |
Quote:
| Senate Amendment 112: To protect disabled veterans from means testing in bankruptcy under certain circumstances. Obama: For McCain: For |
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| Senate Amendment 15: To require enhanced disclosure to consumers regarding the consequences of making only minimum required payments in the repayment of credit card debt, and for other purposes. Obama: For McCain: Against Senate Amendment 38: To discourage predatory lending practices. Obama: For McCain: Against Senate Amendment 89: To strike certain small business related bankruptcy provisions in the bill. Obama: For McCain: Against |
Quote:
| Senate Amendment 49: To protect employees and retirees from corporate practices that deprive them of their earnings and retirement savings when a business files for bankruptcy. Obama: For McCain: Against |
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| Obama: Against McCain: For |
Obama recently had words about McCain siding with the banking industry, and here's the McCain campaign response.
Quote:
| McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds responded in a statement: "Eighteen Democrats and John McCain worked together on the bipartisan Senate bankruptcy bill, and Barack Obama's rigid partisanship and self-promoting political attacks show that he's a typical politician — which is the problem in Washington, not the solution." |
One last postscript on the bill:
Quote:
| A key sponsor of the bill, Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa), actively opposes abortion and same-sex marriage on biblical grounds yet believes the Good Book's clear definition and condemnation of usury is irrelevant. The Old Testament, revered by Jews, Muslims and Christians alike, mandates debt forgiveness after seven years, as was pointed out earlier this month by an organization of Christian lawyers in a letter to Grassley. "I can't listen to Christian lawyers," said the senator, "because I would be imposing the Bible on a diverse population." Sadly, when it comes to serving the prerogatives of banks, you can forget about those family values that folks such as Grassley prattle on about. The bill he wrote placed mothers and their children behind credit card companies in the line for a bankrupt ex-husband's paycheck, for example, which is positively Dickensian. Expected to sail through the House and onto the President's desk in the next few weeks, the bill turns the federal government into a guardian angel of an industry gone mad, placing no significant restriction on soaring interest rates and proliferating fees. |
