Saturday, April 16, 2005

Bankruptcy Bill Rant

President Bush is prepared to sign the bankruptcy bill, crushing people who need the help, and further stroking the credit card companies and the rest of Corporate America. Some people will argue that people should be fiscally responsible. They should, I agree. There are times though, when really good people lose their job(due to outsourcing or downsizing) or fall ill and can not pay exorbitant medical bills. I will disclose that I have filed bankruptcy six years ago and am coming out of that now. My family also has exorbitant medical bills which I simply can not pay.

People fall into hard times. I know several here recently. What about Corporate America? They have filed some absolutely huge, almost obscene bankruptcies. The top five since 1980: 1)Worldcom Inc.- $103,914,000,000(assets at time of filing), Enron Corp.- $63,392,000,000, Conseco Inc.- $61,392,000,000, Texaco Inc.- $35,892,000,000, and Financial Corp of America- $33,864,000,000. That is billions folks. Billions. The list of the top twenty is here. On this list is UAL(parent company United Airlines) which has been bailed out by the government time and again. Financial companies, oil companies, airlines, where does it end. It doesn't. If you totaled the amount of money owed by corporate America and put it up against citizens in this country, I am pretty sure that corporate America would have the larger number when it comes to bankruptcies.

Hey, I have an idea, lets stomp on the little guy. That had to be what Washington was thinking. Or maybe, it is just that their pockets have been filled with the loot of these companies. Sure, I could go into how members of the Bush administration have very close ties to all of these companies, but I wouldn't be telling you anything you didn't know.

If you are going to hold the citizens of this country responsible for their financial woes, then you need to incorporate corporate America in this process too. They also need to be held responsible. I have a very loud message to send back to Washington, if you keep us broke, we can not stimulate your economy. We won't be able to buy your gas, pay our bills, buy American products, pay our taxes and in turn pay your salaries. At some point, you go out of business. When you do, don't come crying to us about your financial problems, 'cus we will remember how you fucked us.
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