A dreadful bill to overhaul the nation’s bankruptcy laws cleared its last significant hurdle before passage Tuesday when debate was cut off in the Senate.

Now the legislation heads to the House for a rubber stamp and then on to President Bush, who has said he will sign it.

The bill makes it harder to get a clean slate by filing for bankruptcy and is nothing more than political patronage for the credit card industry, which has spent lavishly on its favorite politicians. What’s ignored in the sales pitch is that most bankruptcies are caused by unexpected medical bills, the loss of a job or a divorce, not extravagant spending habits.

In all, credit card companies have spent more than $40 million since 1989 on political contributions. This, in part, is their payback. Maine Sen. Olympia Snowe has received more than $316,000 from them in the last 16 years. Sen. Susan Collins, with a shorter tenure in Washington, has received more than $175,000. Both supported cloture and are likely to support final passage.

Beyond the money, credit card giant MBNA is a major financial player in the state and employs more than 3,700 people.

The temptation would be to give Snowe and Collins a pass. So often, they are among a handful of senators who are able to craft meaningful compromise legislation between Democrats and Republicans. Snowe has been a consistent champion for the poor and women, and Collins was the primary motivator behind the massive reform of the intelligence community. They’ve tried to bring fiscal discipline back to Washington, and are stalwarts in the fight to protect the environment.

But on the bankruptcy legislation, they are wrong, and the people who will be hurt are the ones who often depend on them as the last line of defense.

About 1.4 million people filed for bankruptcy last year. In Maine, the number was about 4,600. This bill will keep them in debt and send more of their future earnings to credit card companies.

In the end, this bill isn’t about personal responsibility or people buying too many plasma televisions on credit. It’s about expanding the profits of the credit card industry beyond its $30-billion-a-year-take.