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Why did Harry Reid vote for the Bankrupcy Bill?
Over at Politology there's a transcript of Senator Reid's response-which he has not released in any official way-of why he supported the Bankruptcy Bill.
The bill is flawed in several ways. It does not do enough to protect people who declared bankruptcy due to medical emergencies or military service. It does not do enough to protect the employees of corporations like Enron and Worldcom that declare bankruptcy. And it
allows people who engage in unlawful projects to avoid accountability. Democrats offered amendments to address each of these flaws, but they were rejected by the Republican majority. I hope the Congress returns to these important issues in the future.
But even with these flaws, the bill is an improvement over current law and merits my support.
He's not posting the above answer on his website. Why not stand on these "principles" of his?
Because this one is not about principles. It's about special interests in the classic political sense of the term. In this case, the credit card industry in Nevada (what, you thought Joe Biden was the only Senator from MBNA?) is a big player. Check out the reasons from this article at Bankrate.com.
Of particular interest is this:
"Citibank went to South Dakota, not because South Dakota was a banking center but because it had that particular law," Donovan says.
In 1982, the four largest banks in Maryland relocated their credit card operations to Delaware because of that state's lender-friendly credit card laws. Other states with lender-friendly credit laws include Georgia, Illinois, Nebraska, Nevada, Rhode Island and Utah.
To hang on to the credit card business, many other states loosened state usury limits.
Hmmmmmm, anybody we know from those states?
Contact these Congresscritters and let them know they should be representing their constituents and that usury is un-Christian.