Bankruptcy law will
hurt victims
Molly Ivins,
wvgazette.com from the Web, September 16, 2005
HERE’S a good idea: Consumer
groups and progressive congressfolks have joined in an effort to stop hundreds
of thousands of victims of Hurricane Katrina from being further harmed by the
new Bankruptcy Act, scheduled to take effect Oct. 17. This law was
notoriously written of, by and for the consumer credit industry, and is
particularly onerous for the poor.
The bill was passed with massive support from the Republican leadership in
Congress and from a disgusting number of sellout Democrats. While it was
being considered in committee earlier this year, Texas Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee
offered an amendment to protect victims of natural disasters. It was
defeated, without debate, on a party-line vote.
Now, Congress has a chance to rethink some of the most punitive parts of the
bill. Katrina victims who were planning to file before the new law goes
into effect are S.O.L. — where they gonna find a lawyer, let alone an open
courthouse?
Under the new law, anyone whose income is over the state median must file under
Chapter 13, a more restrictive category that requires some repayment of debt.
The new law grants no exemption for natural disaster, even though it’s going to
be a little tough for some citizen sitting in the Astrodome who no longer has a
home to come up with tax statements, pay stubs, and six months of income and
expense data. Let’s see if Congress can manage to open its marble heart on
this issue.
Meanwhile, it’s an ill wind that blows no one good, so we should not be
surprised to learn the first winner out of the gate on Katrina is none other
than the Halliburton Co., whose deserving subsidiary Kellogg, Brown and Root has
already been granted a $29.8 million contract for cleanup work in the wake of
Katrina.
Of course, no one would suggest Halliburton and its subsidiaries get government
contracts (more than $9 billion for reconstruction work in Iraq, with Pentagon
audits thus far showing $1.03 billion in “questioned” costs and $422 million in
“unsupported costs”) just because Vice President Cheney is still on the payroll.
Heavens no. The veep continues to receive deferred pay from the company he
formerly headed — $194,852 last year.
But Cheney has nothing to do with the Halliburton contracts — that, friends,
goes through none other than the noted lobbyist and former head of — of all
things — the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Since Joe Allbaugh, who
was Bush’s campaign manger in 2000, left FEMA in December 2002, he has been busy
making sure reconstruction contracts in Iraq go to companies that give
generously to the Republican Party.
Now, aren’t you ashamed of yourself for thinking there’s something wrong with
that? Besides, Allbaugh is now with a big-time Washington lobbying firm,
where he also represents Shaw Group Inc., and — viola — Shaw Group, too, already
has a $100 million emergency contract from FEMA for housing management and
construction, and a $100 million order from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for
Katrina repair.
Congress has appropriated over $60 billion in emergency funding for recovery
costs, and estimates are the final costs will top $100 billion.
Danielle Brian, director of the Project on Government Oversight, told Reuters,
“The government has got to stop stacking senior positions with people who are
repeatedly cashing in on the public trust in order to further private commercial
interests.”
Now, Ms. Brian, get a grip. Not all the money goes to the big, politically
connected firms.
Michael (“You’re doing a heckuva job”) Brown liked to spread federal money
around. In fact, Rep. Robert Wexler of Florida was so annoyed by Brownie’s
distribution of largesse in Miami after Hurricane Frances that he urged the
president to fire Ol’ Brownie last January. What upset Wexler about the
$30 million in FEMA checks to cover new wardrobes, cars, lawnmowers, vacuum
cleaners, furniture and appliances was that the hurricane did not affect Miami.
It landed 100 miles away.
Some of you may have heard me observe a time or two — going back to when George
W. was still governor of Texas — that the trouble with the guy is that while he
is good at politics, he stinks at governance.
It bores him, he’s not interested, he thinks government is bad to begin with and
everything would be done better if it were contracted out to corporations.
We can now safely assert that W. has stacked much of the federal government with
people like himself. And what you get when you put people in charge of
government who don’t believe in government and who are not interested in running
it well is ... what happened after Hurricane Katrina.
Many a time in the past six years I have bitten my tongue so I wouldn’t annoy
people with the always obnoxious observation, “I told you so.” But, dammit
it all to hell, I did tell you, and I’ve been telling you since 1994, and I am
so sick of this man and everything he represents — all the sleazy, smug,
self-righteous graft and corruption and “Christian” moralizing and cynicism and
tax cuts for all his smug, rich buddies.
Next time I tell you someone from Texas should not be president of the United
States, please pay attention.
Ivins is a syndicated columnist.
|
