Bankruptcy Bill passes the Senate; Last Ditch is the House

Sadly, the Morally Bankrupt Bill has passed the U.S. Senate. This bill makes it more difficult for average people who run into hard times to keep even the most basic of assets when they run into already rich megacreditors who want just a bit more profit.

The last ditch in this legislative slog is the House of Representatives, where the credit industry’s pocket politicians display even fewer scruples. The bill is as good as signed.

The solid wall of Senate Republicans (and the pathetic pastiche of Senate Democrats) who voted for this bill, 74-25, say that the high-profit, high-interest-rate consumer credit industry needs to be protected against struggling people.

Read that paragraph again.

This bill was passed so that a very healthy industry could be protected against struggling people.

Do you remember when, in this country, people were the central objects of concern?

Silly me. That’s so 20th century. Everything’s changed now. That’s what they tell me at least. I see the same trees, the same streets, the same lampposts. The same people. But the 56 Republican Senators (that’s all of them) and 18 Democrats who voted this lemon through clearly see something different.

We expect Republican Senators to sell out people’s interests to their corporate paymasters. But it is sickeningly disappointing to see 18 Democratic Senators, politicians whose re-elections so many people have supported, turn their backs on people and take the side of the inhuman, inhumane moneymaking entities.

Shame on Senators Baucus, Bayh, Biden, Bingaman, Byrd, Carper, Conrad, Inouye, Johnson, Kohl, Landrieu, Lincoln, Nelson (FL), Nelson (NE), Pryor, Reid, Salazar and Stabenow. They are betraying the best traditions of the Democratic Party. They are kicking unfortunate people when they are down.

I hope the flood of campaign cash sure to come their way balances out the pit they are sure to feel in their stomachs late at night, when they are all alone. No, actually, I don’t.