Rep. Mike Michaud has let down many of the hardworking people in his district struggling with credit card debt.

On Thursday, he joined with 301 other members of the U.S. House of Representatives to vote in favor of a bill that puts the interests of the country’s largest credit card companies and the very rich ahead of people who must work for a living.

The bill, which passed in the United States Senate with the help of both of Maine’s Republican senators, Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins, now goes to President Bush, who will sign it into law. Rep. Tom Allen was the lone Maine lawmaker in Washington who opposed this terrible bill.

The law makes it more difficult for people to file for bankruptcy protection. It is supposed to hold people accountable for their borrowing, to crack down on cheats who game the system by buying plasma televisions and taking fancy trips and then skip out on their bills by declaring bankruptcy. But the rhetoric doesn’t match reality.

A majority of people who declare bankruptcy are beset by unexpected illness, job loss or divorce. They are not big spenders coming off of a spree. They’re often people who want to pay their own way but have run into some trouble and are ashamed that they can’t pay their bills. They’re not crooks, and they’re not frauds.

Meanwhile, while working families will have a tougher time getting a chance to start over, a provision of the bankruptcy bill allows for the super-rich to shelter assets from bill collectors.

There are certainly people who abuse the bankruptcy system, and it would have been possible to craft legislation to address those problems. But that wasn’t the intent. The intent was to help huge financial companies reduce their risks and squeeze a little more money out of people living on the edge of fiscal disaster.

Banks and credit card companies have spent millions pushing this legislation since 1997. On Thursday, with help from Michaud, their investment paid off. Now, working men and women will pay the interest on that investment.