Bankruptcy Bill - Just Awful

Scumbags. Scumbags scumbags scumbags.

Here's the crux of the bankruptcy bill:

• Debtors will have to pay more to creditors, both in bankruptcy and after bankruptcy, so that a bankruptcy filing will leave a family with more credit card debt, higher car loans, more owed to their banks and to payday lenders.

• Makes it more expensive to file for bankruptcy by driving up lawyers’ fees with new paperwork, new affidavits, and new liability for lawyers, so that the people in the most trouble can’t afford to file.

• Makes more hurdles and traps, with deadlines that a judge cannot waive even if someone has a heart attack or an ex-husband who won’t give up a copy of the tax returns, so that more people will get pushed out of bankruptcy with no discharge.

• Makes it harder to repay debts in Chapter 13 by increasing the payments necessary to confirm in a repayment plan, so that more people will be pushed out of bankruptcy without ever getting a discharge of debt.

For a bit more detail, you can go here for a good treatment of the bill. If you read this in-depth treatment of the bill, it could very well make you sick to your stomach.

TPM is keeping up with the developments here. I'm afraid this thing is gonna pass.