Floor Statement of Senator Obama, the Bankruptcy Abuse and Prevention Act 2005

[BigJohn]

[JRScott]

Keep in mind Joe Biden was a major sponsor of the 2005 bill so if Obama really felt it was a bad deal, why'd he pick Biden?

[SiftedLikeWheat]

I agree, why Biden? This bill was a direct result of the credit card lobby. Biden supported this bill because of the huge number of credit card companies registered in his state of Delaware. Someone commented previously that "MBNA owns the state." Apparently, Joe Biden's son also worked for MBNA.

When completing our BK petition, each time we came across some ludicrous requirement, our attorney reminded us that "people who don't pay their bills don't have a lobby."

This is what burns me up about the whole current state of the economy. What got me here was I decided to sell my house and move nearer to family after a cancer diagnosis. I put my home on the market on Oct. 14, 2007. This was the beginning, when things were slow, but not hopeless. The house did not sell, I ended up spending all my savings and 401k, and now I am in BK 13.

Because of the stupid lending practices and bad government policy of the past 30 years, I was unable to sell my house and ended up here. While banks are bailed out left and right on my tax money, I am not given any forgiveness at all. My life is turned upside down, just because I got sick and needed to move.

If I did not file BK, my mortgage company, (that would NOT forebear, that blew a short sale by countering on the ONLY good offer we had), which is most likely receiving government bailout money, would come after me for a judgment!

I am burned up that NONE of the candidates, NO ONE in Congress is in touch with the real world. NONE of them know what the hell is going on. They are all too filthy rich to be in touch with real Americans and what is really going on. I am fed up with the whole lot and think it's time for the pitchforks and torches. I am sick and tired of all the talk in sound bites with no wisdom, no discernment, no real solutions--typical empty suits and empty promises. When it's all over, they'll all be at the yacht club on Sunday afternoon, smoking their Cubans together!

Capitalism is not supposed to be all businesses acting as pyramid schemes with all the big guys at the top taking all the money, pumping the companies, employees and the shareholders dry and moving on to the next one. Welocme to the new age of the new robber barons. They give all the campaign money, so none of the politicians will do anything about it.

And just one more thing: you cannot run a country and be productive without cheap energy. A HUGE part of the bad economy is HIGH ENERGY COSTS. When energy goes way up, a recession results. No one seems to get this. Energy began skyrocketing around 2001. It takes time for energy costs to catch up as inflation in everything we buy. People need to educate themselves on energy and how to lower those costs; otherwise we are looking at a new, permanently lower standard of living.

I've been writing my reps. about these issues for years, but I may as well be spittin' in the wind. My government by the people has become goverment by the special interests--i.e., the big money guys.

[AngelinaCatHub]

[SiftedLikeWheat]

I couldn't agree with you more, A.C. Hub! I can't figure out why we just love the European socialists to death and all they do, EXCEPT nuclear power. Why can't we copy them on that??!!
We can have clean, cheap nuclear power. Safety has been refined over the years. Can you imagine how productive this country could be if we had cheap energy again? Just think all the money we could spend on stuff to get the economy going again, instead of just trying to stay, well, warm!

Remember when they were building all electric homes and the price of electricity went down as you used more? Encouraging use/demand help the companies profit! What a concept.

In California (with "re"-regulation) we had "tiered" rates where you pay considerably more the more you use. I lived like a power nazi, sitting in the dark and turning everything off. I don't know how people are surviving. The electric bill is taking more and more of people's disposable income. Here in PA, we currently have cheap power, but under "re"-regulation once again, the rate caps come off in 2010-2011 and I'm sure the rates will go up considerably.

My uncle in Northern CA told my mom that his top rate for electricity right now is 40cents/kilowatt hour!!!! That's pure and simple highway robbery!!!!!

The only thing I disagree with you on is Congress: I think regular, everyday people should be called up as we are for jury duty. Instead of the rich and out of touch running for office, we call up every day people. The government pays for them to move to and live in DC while they serve their terms. Their jobs have to be held open for them upon return just as they would for military service.

We could eliminate campaigns and campaign money and get real people in, making decisions instead of rich special interests. I'm sure the idea would never fly, but I would trust the everyday guy on the street making decisions for more over the morons we have now! And the everyday guy could be corrupted, too; any system is subject to corruption, but at least we wouldn't have the permanent "mob" in there like now.

[JRScott]

We do need congressional term limits.

I think 12 years is enough. That would be 6 terms in the house, 2 terms in the senate or 3 terms in house and 1 term in senate.

In fact I've written my representatives asking for such limits. (As well as a slew of other common sense limits such as no hiring of immediate family, no lobbying until 12 years after they last served in the legislature, cannot run for President while sitting in the Legislature (they could of course resign a senate or house seat to run but could not hold the seat and run), etc. )

[WhatMoney]

A little aside on your nuclear power plant comment (blaming Jane Fonda and the liberals as usual.)

If it were not for ONE movie called China Syndrome (staring our little commie princes, Jane Fonda) we would have no need for oil or coal to make our electricity.

I think you forgot to mention the Three Mile Island accident, which occured near Harrisburg, PA in 1979, just 12 days after the China Syndrome movie was released. The China Syndrome described a near meltdown of a core from an undiagnosed low water level surrounding the core. Exactly what then actually happened in Three Mile Island, except the core did meltdown and took until 1993 to finally clean up. I've never heard that China Syndrome caused the TMI accident. But the similiarity between fiction and reality so close together obviously was not missed by the general public.

According to the IAEA, the Three Mile Island accident was a significant turning point in the global development of nuclear power. From 1963 to 1979, the number of reactors under construction globally increased every year except 1971 and 1978. However, following the event, the number of reactors under construction declined every year from 1980 to 1998.

The 1979 TMI accident did not, however, initiate the demise of the U.S. nuclear power industry. As a result of post-oil-shock analysis and conclusions of overcapacity, 40 planned nuclear power plants had already been canceled between 1973 and 1979. No U.S. nuclear power plant had been authorized to begin construction since the year before TMI. Nonetheless, TMI added a significant impact on this demise: At the time of the TMI incident, 129 nuclear power plants had been approved; of those, only 53 (which were not already operating) were completed. Federal requirements became more stringent, local opposition became more strident, and construction times were significantly lengthened.

The TMI accident also had a psychological effect on the nation. Before the accident, 70 percent of the general public approved of nuclear power. After it, support for nuclear power across the country fell to about 50 percent, where it remained for decades.

The TMI cleanup started in August 1979 and officially ended in December 1993, having cost around US$975 million. From 1985 to 1990 almost 100 tons of radioactive fuel were removed from the site. However, the contaminated cooling water that leaked into the containment building had seeped into the building's concrete, leaving the radioactive residue impossible to remove. TMI-2 had been online only three months, but now had a ruined reactor vessel and a containment building that was unsafe to walk in — it has since been permanently closed. Many similar Babcock and Wilcox reactors on order were canceled — in total, 51 American nuclear reactors were canceled from 1980 to 1984.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Three_Mile_Island_accident

[treehugger1]

Amen! The reason we don't have "cheap" nuclear energy is because we have far cheaper sources of energy; hydro, coal, and gas. While environmental issues suggest we might consider nuclear, the economics of our country dictate otherwise. For a detailed look into the "economics" of nuclear power, do a search on the state of Washington's boondoggle nuclear energy investment two decades ago. Until environmental and economic issues associated with nuclear power can be overcome, the US will still be accepting of the current sources for energy. While we might believe that we want to support onshore innovations, this is not where we spend our money as consumers. We want good earnings and expect to pay "Chinese" prices for products that can only be manufactured overseas to provide a reasonably priced product. We get exactly what we are willing to pay for, and nuclear energy is not one of these. Just my two-cents.