Political Quotes

“on a final note, let me just say in response to the argument from the other side of the aisle, the child support and alimony problem does not begin and end with sections 141 and 142 of H.R. 3150. The means test and other parts of the bill contribute to the problem as well. A letter from the National Partnership for Women and Families put it best. Several provisions increase the credit card's ability to pressure debtors into reaffirming credit card debt by threatening the debtor with repossession or litigation. Through reaffirmation, even more credit card debt becomes nondischargeable in bankruptcy. In other words, aggressive creditors can use the leverage that they receive under this bill's means test to force debtors to agree to let their debts survive bankruptcy. So we once again have debtors entering the post-bankruptcy world with large amounts of credit card debt hanging over their heads in addition to their support and alimony obligations. There is simply no way to fix the child support and alimony problems with this bill other than to delete the new exceptions to the discharge of credit card debt and rewrite its means test along the lines of the Nadler-Meehan-Berman substitute. We should support this substitute and defeat this bill. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.”