Call Rep Herseth re bankruptcy Bill before Wed. 04-13-05

[sarahlee]

Dear MoveOn member,
Yesterday we e-mailed you about the special "Pledge Fund" we're putting together for ads in the hometowns of representatives who vote for bankruptcy legislation. That change in bankruptcy laws will give a huge windfall to credit card companies and banks while squeezing middle class families.

The "Pledge Fund" is going strong. In less than 24 hours, MoveOn members have pledged more than $425,000. Don't forget to make your pledge by clicking on the link below.

http://www.moveonpac.org/radiopledge/?id=5346-1220772-loq_JKzP2FXXVaxuMRUq_A

Congress is poised to vote Wednesday on this sweeping change in bankruptcy law. It is critical that members of Congress hear from you today.

Please call:

Congresswoman Stephanie Herseth
DC Phone: [phone]

Tell the staffer who answers that you are a constituent and that you would like Rep. Herseth to vote against the bankruptcy bill because it sides with big banks and corporations over middle class families. Ask the staffer to send you a letter explaining the representative's position.

After you call help us keep track of how many calls are made to which representatives by clicking on the link below.

http://www.moveonpac.org/

Even if you are represented by a Democrat, please make a phone call. The last time this bill was voted on 90 Democrats voted for the measure. Today's calls will be one of the first times your representative will hear from constituents about this issue.

The new bankruptcy law would make it impossible for folks who have been dealt a bad hand to get a clean start. The law actually gives credit card companies new ways to seize your home and car if you get into financial trouble.

What's wrong with the bankruptcy legislation? A lot. More than 1.5 million families had to declare bankruptcy last year—half because of unexpected and extraordinary medical expenses. Millions more totter on the edge of bankruptcy. The large numbers of bankruptcies is a clear sign about the tenuous state of the economy—millions of Americans who work hard and play by the rules could be pushed at any time to financial ruin by job loss, business failure or major medical expenses. The pressure valve for these families has historically been bankruptcy but now Congress is making things tougher for these hard-working folks in order to secure billions in profits for creditors.

The legislation Congress will vote on is more than 500 pages long, all in highly technical language. But the Republican leadership and corporate lobbyists are in such a rush to push it through that the text is full of misspellings and repeated phrases. Representatives might not even be allowed to make amendments. But the overall thrust is pretty clear:

Make families pay more to creditors, both in bankruptcy and after bankruptcy, so that instead of offering a clean start, a bankruptcy filing will leave families burdened by credit card debt, car loans, and continued payments to banks or to payday lenders.

Make it more expensive to file for bankruptcy by driving up fees so that the people in the most trouble can't afford to file.

Make it trickier to get through a bankruptcy so that more people will get pushed out of bankruptcy with no debt relief.

Make it harder to repay debts by increasing the minimum payments in repayment plans.

Preserve at all costs the millionaires' loopholes—special privileges that allow the super-rich to escape their debts by hiding their money in special exemptions and trusts.
The changes in bankruptcy laws are just the start. This week the radical Republican leadership, like Rep. Tom DeLay, have declared a war on ordinary Americans with a corporate trifecta: bankruptcy law changes, a permanent repeal of the estate tax (which only affects the super-rich), and a budget that cuts health care and explodes the debt.
Congress needs to hear from you.

Thanks for all you do.

–Tom Matzzie and the MoveOn PAC Team
Tuesday, April 12th, 2005

P.S. Here are some good resoures about the bankruptcy legislation.

"The Debt-Peonage Society," Paul Krugman, The New York Times, March 8, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/08/opinion/08krugman.html

"The Growing Threat to Middle Class Families," Prof. Elizabeth Warren, Harvard Law School
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=690&id=5346-1220772-loq_JKzP2FXXVaxuMRUq_A

Public Campaign Action Fund on the connections to Tom DeLay
http://www.pcactionfund.org/withoutdelay/bankruptcy/

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

1. I'd be extremely surprised if Herseth doesn't vote FOR this bill.

She's won twice, but by razor thin margins, in a state that has a lot of banking interests. It would take a whole lot of courage for her to vote against this.

[sarahlee]

2. She told me she will vote for it

I pasted her letter here earlier - but that did not keep me from sending her two more letters - one yesterday and one today.

This was my last desperate effort:


Message sent to the following recipients:
Representative Herseth
Message text follows:


More evidence about why you should NOT support this Bankruptcy Bill
=============

Bankruptcy Study Highlights Need For National Health Insurance February 2, 2005

Bankruptcy Study Highlights Need For National Health Insurance

Most Bankrupted by Illness Had Insurance

Physicians’ Group Decries Fake Reforms and “Counterfeit Coverage”

A new Harvard study of medical bankruptcies highlights the growing number of Americans with dangerously skimpy health insurance coverage and the need to address the problems of the insured as well as the uninsured, according to Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP). The study, published today as a Web Exclusive by the journal Health Affairs found that half of U.S. bankruptcies, affecting 2 million people annually, were attributable to illness or medical bills. (Copies of the article can be accessed at: www.pnhp.org/bankruptcy/uninsured.html)

The physicians’ group pointed out that three-quarters of those bankrupted by illness were insured when they first got sick. While politicians acknowledge the need to cover the uninsured, they have ignored the worsening plight of those with coverage. Rising health care costs, skimpier policies and the cancellation of coverage when illness causes job loss have augmented the financial risk for those with insurance. This heightened risk is reflected in the 2200% increase in medical bankruptcies since 1981 found in the Harvard study.

PNHP highlighted two causes of the high rate of medical bankruptcy among the insured. First, many employers are cutting back coverage through larger co-payments, deductibles and exclusions – often under the euphemism of “consumer-driven health plans.” Second, the current link between coverage and employment means that insurance often evaporates when it is needed the most – when illness is so severe that breadwinners are unable to work. The COBRA law, which allows people to continue their coverage when they lose a job, has failed to address this problem because the premiums for continued coverage are unaffordable (often $10,000 per year
or more).

Only national health insurance (NHI) can solve the problem, according to the group. The NHI plan proposed by the group in the Journal of the American Medical Association (see www.physiciansproposal.org for text of proposal) would de-link coverage from employment, cover all medically necessary care without co-payments or deductibles, and cover all Americans. Previous studies have shown that the administrative savings under NHI from eliminating private insurance companies could fund comprehensive care for all Americans without any increase in overall health costs. <snip>

http://www.pnhp.org/news/2005/february/bankruptcy_study_hig.php

NPR Report on Medical Bankruptcies
Audio File
http://pnhp.org/bankruptcy/bankruptcy.smil

When the Senate passed this bill, it rejected a dozen crucial changes to make the bill humane - such as exemptions for serious medical problems, exemptions for those in the military, an interest rate limit of 30%, protecting the homes of the elderly, and comparably strict treatment of those who are rich.

Now, it is in your hands. Don't let this go through!

Sincerely,

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. I hope you don't hold this mortally against her.

You DO see the hole she's stuck in on this one, don't you?

[Broke Dad]

4. Herseth's grandfather would turn over in his grave

Governor Herseth was a populist. If you had any doubts about Stephanie, now you know. She votes with the money. Its not a sin, but it is disappointing when progressives work so hard to elect a Democrat to make a difference and then . . . have them vote with the big banks.

Credit card companies made $25 million in campaign contributions to Congressional and Senate candidates since 1996. They paid good money for this Congress. Now they are reaping the return on their investment. They are like the crack cocaine dealers who hook the kids and then bribe the cops to enforce their drug debts. Our kids and many of us are hooked on crack credit and now the Justice Department will collect the money for the dealers.

The giant sucking sound you hear is money made the hard way on the plains being wired to New York to satisfy credit card interest charges.