Senate Amendments voted down yesterday on S256

[TayTay]

Amendments to the Bankruptcy Bill #256. (The screw you, I've got mine bill.)

You can see exactly which Senators voted for and against these Amendments at:
http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_109_1.htm

Akaka Amdt. No. 15;
To require enhanced disclosure to consumers regarding the consequences of making only minimum required payments in the repayment of credit card debt, and for other purposes.
Voted down Ayes 40 Nays 59

Kennedy Amdt. No. 28.;
To exempt debtors whose financial problems were caused by serious medical problems from means testing.
Voted down Ayes 39 Nays 58

Kennedy Amdt. No. 29;
To provide protection for medical debt homeowners.
Voted down Ayes 39 Nays 58

Corzine Amdt. No. 32;
To preserve existing bankruptcy protections for individuals experiencing economic distress as caregivers to ill or disabled family members.
Voted down Ayes 37 Nays 60

Alert to Dems Remember these votes and use them against any Rethug in '06.

[ogradda]

1. a compassionate bunch.

I hope their God shows them the same mercy.

[Warpy]

2. Also remember any turncoat Dem who voted against them

Honestly, a pubbie couldn't be worse.

Voting against the incumbent, even if you have to put up with a pubbie for one term, is often necessary.

[blondeatlast]

3. I consider the "screw you, I've got mine" bill an acid test of big D

Democratic principles. Anyone who votes to support this RW wet dream should not be supported by the party or Dem individuals.

[nathansnewman]

4. Santorum's Sweatshop Expansion Amendments

Full details here

Excerpts:

Sweatshops Expanded, Overtime Attacked, and State Minimum Wage Laws Undermined

This is as low as it goes, as the GOP fights to expand sub-minimum wage sweatshops across the country. Pennsylvania's Rick Santorum is leading the charge for a GOP bill that would ostensibly raise the minimum wage by $1.10 per hour, but in reality would cut wages for millions of American workers and expand unregulated sweatshops across the country.

As this Economic Policy Institute analysis details, the bill is a trojan horse for assaulting workers rights.

Licensing Sweatshops: While a $1.10 per hour minimum wage increase by itself would help 1.8 million workers, Santorum includes a poison bill exempting any business with revenues of $1 million or less from regulation -- raising the exemption from the current $500,000 level.

The upshot: while 1.2 million workers could qualify for a minimum wage increase, another 6.8 million workers, who work in companies with revenues between $500,000 and $1,000,000 per year, would lose their current minimum wage protection.

-- snip --

But here's a kicker from a GOP supposedly dedicated to states rights. Santorum's bill would ban states from requiring employers to pay tipped workers with a guaranteed wage. Employers could pay tipped workers nothing and force them to live off tips, while states would be preempted from creating a higher wage standard for tipped workers. . . Essentially, those workers could be hired for zero dollars and told they had to live only off tips, however little those were.

The attack on the tip credit is bad enough, but the precedent of the federal government creating a MAXIMUM standard for wage regulation and restricting the right of states to create a higher standard is even more dangerous.