My Friday column begins like so:
Back in 2005, Congress passed the Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act, otherwise known as the Bankruptcy Bill. The “consumer protection” part of the title was indicative of the Orwellian naming trend of the Bush era because, predictably, it was a hugely profitable love letter to big banks and lenders at the expense of the American people just a few years prior to the most epic financial collapse since the Great Depression.
In addition to being almost entirely unnecessary, the bill forced anyone filing for Chapter 7, which forgives all debts, to undergo a means test. Following the passage of the bill, if an individual or a couple earns more than the median income of their state, they’re considered “abusive” borrowers and must, instead, file Chapter 13 which involves entering into a deal with creditors to repay the debt. For many Americans — no more clean-slate bankruptcies. So not only did big lenders and Wall Street screw millions of us in the Great Recession, but Congress, the Bush White House, our current vice president (Biden voted for it because, well, Delaware) and the financial sector guaranteed we’d have a more arduous path out of the hole — screwed on both ends, while the banks and lenders were all summarily bailed out without been forced to prove whether they themselves were “abusive.”
Yet that mutually satisfactory handjob between Congress and special interests at the expense of the people barely registers on the outrage meter compared with the failure of the background checks amendment in the Senate on Wednesday. At no other time in recent memory was there a more obvious example of the will of the people being ignored by cowardly lawmakers in lieu of a special interest group.
If we were unsure about this before, it ought to be abundantly clear today that the propagandists at the National Rifle Association wield staggering levels of power over the most exclusive lawmaking body in the world. [continue reading here]