A President Obama Would Ease Bankruptcy Laws.

By Caren Bohan

ATLANTA, July 8 (Reuters) - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday will propose overhauling U.S. bankruptcy laws to ease their impact on people unable to pay their bills because of medical expenses or military service. "I'll reform our bankruptcy laws to give Americans who find themselves trapped in debt a second chance," Obama will say in prepared remarks for a town hall in Powder Springs, Georgia, which is outside of Atlanta. "While Americans should pay what they owe and we should be fair to those creditors who were fair to their borrowers, we also have to do more for the struggling families who need help most," he added.

TPJ: This would be a huge help to the average American who we know plays a huge part in running our economy through consumer spending/confidence. The Bush/McCain/Republican bankruptcy restriction law was basically written by the credit card companies and other big business blood suckers.

It's a vicious downward spiral because nearly half of all bankruptcy declarations are due to health problems, costs that could be absorbed through a national health care plan. We nearly had to declare bankruptcy because of my mental illness restricting me from working.

However because we don't have a comprehensive system (thanks for the Bush/McCain and the n Republicans) people can't pay their bills and thus have to declare bankruptcy. Then with the bankruptcy laws being more stringent people don't have the extra money to put back into the economy.

It's a great bill to give the credit card companies more money but is hurting the average American who is just trying to get by and maybe have a little extra money to pay for collage and build up a retirement safety net. But because of some of the costs that they have to absorb with this new, restrictive bill supported by McCain, folks don't have that extra money anymore. It's yet another Bush policy that McCain gladly supported. So of course he's Bush 2.0!! McCain doesn't know the plight of the average American.

He doesn't seem to get it that many Americans have to scrounge to find money to pay their rent or pay for medicine thanks to not being able to declare bankruptcy as easily to help them recover from devastating medical bills. He's too busy living the good life in one of his alleged 8 mansions and flying around in his wife's private jet I guess. Let them eat cake eh Johnny?

More on this bill from Obama:

And if we’re going to crack down on bankruptcy abuse, we should make it clear that we intend to hold the wealthy and the powerful accountable too.

As it is now, this bill makes it easier for a company like Enron who just bilked their employees out of their life savings to declare bankruptcy than for the employees themselves. In my own state, we even had a mining company by the name of Horizon declare bankruptcy and then refuse to pay its employees the health benefits it owed them.

The Mine Workers involved had provided a total of 100,000 years of service and dedication and sacrifice to this company. They spent their lives working hard. They did their part. But Horizon didn’t do its part, and it was allowed to hide behind bankruptcy laws to leave these workers without the care they had earned.

Yet more information:

“John McCain has been part of the problem,” Obama said. “When he had the chance to help families avoid falling into debt, John McCain sided with the credit card companies. When he had the chance to protect teenagers and college students from deceptive credit card practices, he sided with the credit card companies. And when I fought against the credit card industry’s bankruptcy bill that made it harder for working families to climb out of debt, he supported it — and he even opposed exempting families who were only in bankruptcy because of medical expenses they couldn’t pay.”

One amendment offered by Kennedy would exempt debtors if their financial problems were caused by medical expenses. All 54 Republicans in the chamber, including McCain, voted against the measure, which was rejected 39-58. Obama joined 37 other Democrats and Vermont Independent James M. Jeffords in voting for it.

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