Dirty Rotten Hurricane Victim Cheats

You’ve had your home destroyed. Your dog is dead, and you haven’t heard what happened to your mother. The place you used to work is still under 15 feet of water, and has gone out of business anyway. You’re not going to be allowed to go back to even check on your home for weeks, and all your financial records have turned into toxic pulp buried underneath 5 feet of infectious mud.

So, what does that make you? Well, according to the Republican Party, and the big financial firms that they serve, that makes you a dirty, rotten, cheating ingrate who is unworthy of bankruptcy protection.

No kidding.

You remember that law the Republicans passed earlier this year? They said it would protect “us” from bankruptcy fraud (by “us” they meant credit card companies).

Well, that law goes into effect in just a few weeks, and it demands that no one who has earned more than their state’s median income can declare Chapter 7 bankruptcy. That includes a huge number of hurricane victims.

So, if these hurricane victims want to have a fighting chance of declaring bankruptcy, they’ll have to try to do so without any access to their financial records. How much did they make last year, and how can they prove it? How much is their house worth? What are their assets? The victims can’t answer these questions. Even the offices of their tax preparers have been destroyed.

Come October, these people will be slapped with even heavier paperwork requirements that they may never be able to meet, and all they’re trying to do is get back on their feet again.

Well, we can all take some solace in the knowledge that credit card companies are now adequately protected from hurricane victims. That’s the beauty of the free market system. Everything, even the United States Congress, is for sale.