for Katrina victims.
Bankrupting the victims
GOVERNMENT AID IS FINALLY flowing to the most helpless victims of Hurricane Katrina, but a broader category of the dispossessed will test the government over a longer period of time. They are families with the means to flee the hurricane, perhaps even with insurance to cover some losses, but without the resources to make a living immediately. In other contexts, they would be referred to simply as the middle class.
They have lost their homes but are living off their credit cards and maybe a little savings. As those savings dwindle, however, the mortgage keeps coming due and their credit card nears its limit. Soon the paycheck may stop, and with it their health insurance.
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Rep. John Conyers Jr. (D-Mich.) and Sen. Russell D. Feingold (D-Wis.) are leading efforts to delay the bankruptcy law's application to Katrina victims and grant broader exceptions to survivors of all severe disasters.
Before Katrina, supporters of the new law argued it would curb abuse of the bankruptcy code. This argument was always dubious, and in the aftermath of the hurricane, the new law appears simply callous. Does Congress really want to use Katrina's victims as test cases in some sort of grand experiment in bankruptcy reform?
http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-ed-bankrupt9sep09,0,7835746.story?coll=la-home-oped