Of the many important issues in this year’s presidential race, bankruptcy laws still rank among them, at least in Barack Obama’s view.
For those who don’t know, the bankruptcy laws were dramatically complicated in 2005 after years of lobbying by the credit card industry, and numerous vetoes (or at least threatened) by President Clinton. The laws made it more difficult to be eligible to file bankruptcy, and made all bankruptcy cases more expensive to file. new bankruptcy laws
During his campaign, both in the primaries and now, Obama has repeated that he intends to change the current bankruptcy laws, at least by modifying it to allow more eligibility for those with medical debts. How much further he would go remains to be seen.
One interesting note is that while Obama consistently voted against the Bankruptcy Reform Bill that passed in 2005, his vice presidential running mate, Joseph Biden, voted in favor of it. Biden, who is a senator from Delaware where most of the major credit card companies are incorporated, apparently voted to curry favor from this longtime lobby.
John McCain, on the other hand, has mentioned nothing about the bankruptcy laws in his campaign, nor is it expected that modifying it would be on his agenda as president. McCain voted in favor of the 2005 law change.
The point of the above is not a political endorsement, but rather to let you know that if you think that the current bankruptcy laws are unfair, at least on that issue there is a clear choice.
