Political Quotes

“For centuries American bankruptcy law has had the principle that if a person ever gets over their head in debt, they can cash in all their assets, pay off all the debts that they can, and get a fresh start. For policy reasons, a few assets have been historically exempt and a few debts have been historically nondischargeable, especially those that have been incurred by fraud or through abuse of the bankruptcy system. Yet the principle has always been the same, cash in all one has and get a fresh start. This bill violates the historic principle. People who incur debts because of illness, unemployment, or business failure and have debts they cannot pay off will be denied an opportunity to get a fresh start. They will be stripped of every penny of income after basic expenses such as food and rent without reasonable allowance for unforeseen emergencies such as auto repairs and so forth, which will inevitably come up. People in these circumstances will be in economic slavery for 5 years and probably be worse off at the end of 5 years than they were before. During this time a person over his head in debt has nothing to lose. This bill will deny relief under the traditional bankruptcy laws for at least 5 years. The bill has no rational measure for determining a person's ability to pay off their debts.”