I decided to file for bankruptcy today.

[Kire]

Just in time...

Erasing Debts With Bankruptcy Gets Harder

By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON - Erasing medical bills, credit card charges and other debts in bankruptcy soon will become more difficult under landmark legislation that has vaulted its last major hurdle before Senate passage.


The legislation gliding toward congressional passage following Tuesday's procedural vote in the Senate would constitute the most sweeping overhaul of U.S. bankruptcy laws in a quarter-century.

Senate passage this week and likely House approval of that bill next month would deliver to President Bush (news - web sites) the second of his pro-business legislative priorities after Republicans fattened their majorities in both chambers in November's elections.

Congress sent Bush a law last month placing most large multistate class action lawsuits under federal court jurisdiction, making it harder for plaintiffs to join together and win multimillion-dollar judgments in state courts.

Banks, credit card issuers and retailers have pushed for eight years for bankruptcy revisions that would force more people to repay at least part of their debt. It nearly passed in 2002 — failing when the Senate accepted, but House Republicans rejected, a Democratic amendment barring protesters from using bankruptcy to avoid paying court fines for blocking abortion clinics.

More: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050309/ap_on_go_co/bankruptcy

[Skittles]

1. you do what you need to do, Kire

f*** these conservative bastards

[Kire]

8. Thanks, Skittles

thanks, for your kind words

[kaitykaity]

2. So did I.

So did I. I was going to try and pay them off.
Take me years.

Eff them now.

[Enquiringkitty]

3. How much time do I have before the vote?

[izzie]

4. I understand some of this on the bill but---

I do recall my father taking a big hit from two people on business on this and the people who would not pay did not seem to give up one thing but the money they owned my father. One he got 10% on the dollar and the other he just wrote off as it was a widow left after the husband died. Moral counting most I think he did the right thing but of course he was the one out of pocket with money he had worked hard for. I am sure a credit company would not have been so nice as I watch them go after my sisters estate and it was less than 2000 dollars she owned when she died. The credit cards seem to me to be on the side of hell but what can one do?

[Mr Rabble]

9. I BK'd 2 years ago

and left out every small business that I owed. I paid all my debts to local and small businesses. The credit card companies I totally wrote off. After 1 month of missing my payments, my minimum went from $600 to $3300! I tried to make good but they wouldnt have it.

It was clearly my fault for using the cards, rather than paying cash.

Lesson learned.

[Enquiringkitty]

5. we can all email our representative and tell them we don't want to loose

the protection we have and if the really are going to look after the people who voted them in, they will vote this down or we will vote them out. We loose protection....they loose a job!

[Kweli4Real]

15. I am so frustrated with our elected officials

But I am more frustrated with We, The People. We elect our officials to act on our behalf, and when they don't, we don't require (or even ask) that they explain or justify their votes.

I need a concise (factual) summation/analysis detailing the harm this Bill will cause the middle class and how it will benefit/not effect the rich.

My plan is to e-mail my elected officials with the analysis and ask my Senators to spell out how they came to support the Bill (they both did). I'll then e-mail my Representative in the House with the analysis and ask them to discuss their thoughts on how they will vote on the Bill.

I will end each e-mail with the statement , "Please note, I believe in a voter's right to know how our elected representatives arrive at their positions/votes. However, since our elected officials rarely provide us with more than scripted sound-bites and in the interest of voter education, I will submit your response or lack of response to the Tucson Citizen, the Tucson Daily Star, the Tucson Weekly for publication. Thank you for your attention to this matter. Signed Faithful Voter since 1979."

[caledesi]

6. How long before it goes into effect? I have to plan. nt

[tccoyle]

11. The bankruptcy bill will

go into effect 180 days after Bush signs it. At this point, the bill needs to be introduced into the house, get out of committee (could be done in a day) and they get a floor vote, sans amendments. Any amendments would have to be ok'd by the Senate. The House will probably pass without amendments. It could all happen this week, but probably will have to wait til after Easter recess. Figure mid April for signing...April 15th maybe? Then 180 days for most features, some, like the homestead limits go into effect immediately upon signing.

We have a doomsday clock on our site set for 10/1/05 - the new fiscal year and the potential effective date if it is done this week. We will adjust it accordingly when the actual date is known.

http://www.cazelaw.com

[Robert Oak]

7. yup, if you're in financial trouble do it now before it's too late

plus the rush to bankruptcy could do two things:

1. almost a protest action against the credit card companies

2. show in statistics just how bad off Americans really are.

This still doesn't solve the day when anyone gets sick...
that's clearly when the shit hits the fan when 50% of all bankruptcies
happen under the old rules.

[rustydad]

10. My ex.......

....and her new husband are in their fifties and teach drama at a private school. They decided to self finance a movie he scripted. They used their credit cards (two). They ran up a bill of $160,000 on the two cards. The movie hasn't made a dime and they cannot make the CC payments. They will likely be going into bankruptcy. The question is why in the world would a CC company loan two school teachers that much money? Bob

[tccoyle]

12. Because they can get the government

to do their collecting for them!!

[fasttense]

14. My son has a part time job. It wasn't two days later a credit

card company offered him a card with a $5,000 limit. They boy didn't even make $2,000 in a year. The credit card companies are not held accountable to who they loan money to. Yet we are held accountable to pay their excessive interests rates and limitless late fees.

I have a great Credit Union and have a card through them. My plan is to pay them off in 16 months and never charge again.

[Nadienne]

13. Is this anything like

the Bankruptcy Reform Bill of 2001?

http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SN00420:@@@L&summ2=m&#major%20actions

The vote:

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/roll_call_vote_cfm.cfm?congress=107&session=1&vote=00036#position

Which would have meant that some bankruptcy-filers would still have to pay off their credit card debt? I once made the mistake of having too much credit card debt. My only options were to continue being squeezed indefinately, file for bankruptcy, get help from credit counselling (a rather unsavory option because of the strict financial regimine I would have had to stick to), or cash out my pension plan. I sometimes wonder whether our representatives know what it's like to be faced with such a decision...