With the help of our two Maine senators, there’s little doubt now that the “Bankruptcy Abuse Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005” will reach the desk of President Bush. It’s one of the most mean-spirited pieces of legislation in recent memory. A recent study in the journal “Health Affairs” found that in 2001 half of the roughly 1.5 million bankruptcies that year were the result of families overwhelmed by their medical bills. Three-quarters of them had health insurance that was either inadequate or disappeared with the loss of their jobs.

Most bankruptcies are the result of catastrophic or chronic illness, job loss or divorce, not high-living.

The Republican-controlled Congress ignored amendments that would have protected the most vulnerable, as well as the hard-pressed elderly and military families beset by financial troubles.

In contrast, no limits were put upon the interest rates credit card companies may charge (apparently even a cap at 30 percent was considered too great a hardship), and nothing was done about their predatory marketing practices.

Our two Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, who voted for the bill, have benefited handsomely from political contributions made by MBNA. Over the course of her 16 years in congress, Sen. Snowe in particular has received over $300,000 from the credit card giant, the most of any senator, while her husband, former Gov. John McKernan, has served as a paid consultant for the company.

The favor has been returned.

Ed Cundy, Paris

Copy the Story Link