With many Americans entering NCAA college basketball betting pools this
week, it occurred to me that C-SPAN might get a ratings boost if U.S.
senators wore brightly colored uniforms with numbers on their backs.
Think about it. Millions who can’t tell a match-up zone from a no-parking
zone are wagering good money on the Opossum State Marsupials’ chances
of upsetting the Fighting Toll Booth Collectors of UNJ. Yet only a tiny fraction
can tell you how their senator voted on a bankruptcy "reform" law that among
other outrages puts credit card companies ahead of child support payments in
collecting from deadbeat dads. That’s right, sports fans. The corporate shills
who peddle unsecured credit to teenagers and house pets via bulk mail and
Internet pop-up ads, seduce them into debt, then pummel them with late fees,
excess-spending penalties and 40 percent interest rates now want to prevent
the poor saps from escaping through bankruptcy.

That’s where colored uniforms might come in handy: As one would expect,
every last Republican in the U.S. Senate voted for the so called Bankruptcy
Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005. Favoring corporations
over individuals is what Republicans do. But then, so did 17 Democrats, including
Sens. Mark Pryor and Blanche Lincoln of Arkansas. Yet even some Republicans
would have hesitated to vote for the fool thing had their constituents known what
team they were playing for.

Republicans, as usual, stated their views in moralistic terms. "I think everybody
knows when they take those credit cards and they accrue debt, they are supposed
to repay that debt," said Orrin Hatch of Utah. "Frankly, we have far too many people
taking advantage of credit cards and not paying their debt."

Can I get an amen? Truth is, almost everybody agrees. Hardly anybody wants to
take bankruptcy. Most regard it as a personal shame. But many of us also know
somebody who accidentally on purpose ran a credit card pyramid scam, using
card B to make payments on card A, card C to pay B, etc., until running up a
huge debt and defaulting. A bankruptcy reform dedicated to catching deliberate
cheats is one everybody could support.

But that’s not what we’re about to get. Statistics show that of the 1.4 million
Americans filing for personal bankruptcy last year, the overwhelming majority’s
troubles were caused by personal misfortune: mostly job loss, divorce and sudden
medical expenses. Medical emergencies alone caused more than half, and three
quarters of those were people who had health insurance but couldn’t afford costs
their policies didn’t cover.

With this in mind, Democrats proposed a series of what would strike most
people as common-sense amendments to the draconian bill essentially dictated
by the financial services industry. Sen. Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts proposed
exempting from tougher repayment standards families whose bankruptcy was
caused by medical emergencies. Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois wanted to exempt
military men and women financially hurt after being called to active duty. Sen. Mark
Dayton of Minnesota proposed a 30 percent limit on credit card interest rates.
Thirty percent!

Voting almost unanimously, Republicans defeated them all. Never mind that the
Bible they’re so fond of citing in other (mostly sexual) contexts literally equates
usurers with hit men. (" In you [Jerusalem] men accept bribes to shed blood;
you take usury and excessive interest and make unjust gain from your neighbors
by extortion.... I will surely strike my hands together at the unjust gain you have
made and at the blood you have shed in your midst. ")

Republicans also rejected $150,000 equity exemptions letting people keep their
houses, homestead protection for the elderly, even a truth-in-lending amendment
requiring credit card statements to specify the total dollar cost of repaying credit
card balances by minimum monthly payments. (The average American family
carries $8,000 in plastic debt.) Republicans also refused to limit so-called asset
protection trusts, used by the wealthy (they’re expensive to create) to shield
their assets in bankruptcy proceedings.

In short, if Grandma gets breast cancer, Grandpa belongs to the credit card
company; it’s basically sharecropping, 21st century style.

So what persuaded any Senate Democrats to vote for it? Well, that’s where the
idea of red or blue uniforms gets complicated. Fortunately, NASCAR has the
solution. Its drivers wear large, brightly colored decals advertising their corporate
sponsors. If we outfitted U.S. senators the same way, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del.,
would wear a big MBNA patch for the financial services corporation headquartered
in his state. Sen. Joe Lieberman, D-Conn., who provided a key vote in favor of
closing debate, then boasted about opposing the final bill after its passage was
safely assured, might wear the insignia of Hartford Financial Services. Our own
Blanche Lincoln might choose the logos of some of her largest campaign
contributors: the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan
Chase and the American Bankers Association.
 

Free-lance columnist Gene Lyons is a Little Rock author and
recipient of the National Magazine Award.

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