Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: American Spirit who wrote (45871)	10/13/2000 12:45:45 PM
From: ColtonGang	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Bill Clinton and hopefully Gore, unlike the previous administration tries to work for the commonfolk not big business................good going! White House says Clinton will veto House bankruptcy bill October 13, 2000 Web posted at: 9:25 AM EDT (1325 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- A presidential veto looms over legislation making it harder for people to erase credit card and other debts in bankruptcy court. The measure has cleared the House and is moving toward a vote in the Senate. On Thursday, the White House said President Clinton -- who supports a bankruptcy law overhaul in principle -- would veto the bipartisan measure approved by lawmakers on a voice vote after a fairly brief debate. With Congress racing to adjourn next week, it was doubtful lawmakers would have an opportunity to override his action. Across the Capitol in the Senate, a staunch opponent, Sen. Paul Wellstone, D-Minn., has threatened to block the measure. However, his power to obstruct legislation is limited, and Senate Democratic leaders, including Minority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., have expressed support for putting it to a vote soon. That could occur next week. The measure has divided Democratic lawmakers. Its proponents in both parties, who have been pushing such legislation for three years, have received millions of dollars in campaign money from banks and credit card companies this election year. In House debate, supporters pointed to the rapid rise in bankruptcy filings in recent years -- 1.4 million in 1998 -- as evidence of rampant abuse of the bankruptcy court system. They maintained the abuses create a "hidden tax" of at least $400 a year on each American family in the form of higher interest rates passed on by consumer credit businesses and other charges. "Clearly this nation's bankruptcy system is broken when it enables individuals to avoid paying their debts," Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., said before the vote. "Bankruptcy reform is not a Republican or a Democratic issue. It's a consumer issue." The bill would establish a complex mathematical formula for determining whether debtors are able to repay part of their debts under a court-supervised plan and therefore would not be allowed to have them dissolved. But opponents said the legislation would hurt families hit by job loss, catastrophic medical expenses and other hardships that push them over the edge financially, as well as single mothers and their children seeking alimony and support payments from bankrupt fathers. "This is a mean-spirited bill," declared Michigan Rep. John Conyers, the House Judiciary Committee's senior Democrat. AFL-CIO President John Sweeney later called it "a heartless attack on working families by powerful financial institutions." In mid-1999 and early this year, the House and Senate passed differing versions of the legislation with veto-proof margins. Clinton threatened twice in June to veto the bill as written because he considered it unfair to ordinary debtors. His national economic adviser, Gene Sperling, said late last month that Clinton still found it unacceptable despite recent changes. If the bankruptcy measure again wins a veto-proof majority in the Senate, Clinton could choose to wait until Congress adjourns before effectively vetoing it by not signing it, thereby depriving lawmakers of the chance to override it in a new vote. By law, he has 10 days from passage of the legislation to wield his veto pen or not sign it if Congress is out of session. In a letter Thursday to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., Clinton's chief of staff John Podesta said the bill "fails to address some creditor abuses and disadvantages all debtors to an extent unnecessary to stem abuses by a few." He said Clinton also objected to the removal of a provision in the Senate-passed bill prohibiting people found to have violated laws protecting abortion clinics from using bankruptcy proceedings to escape fines and civil judgments. Banks, savings and loans, credit card companies and other consumer finance businesses spent some $6 million on donations to political candidates and party-building activities between Jan. 1 and June 30, according to the group Common Cause. The total included $1.7 million from the five U.S. banks with the biggest credit-card businesses: Citigroup, Bank One/First USA, MBNA, Bank of America and Chase Manhattan. ___

To: American Spirit who wrote (45871)	10/13/2000 12:47:40 PM
From: kvkkc1	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Too bad you're old man didn't have a gun. Maybe he'd be alive today.knc

To: American Spirit who wrote (45871)	10/13/2000 2:49:28 PM
From: Gordon A. Langston	Respond to of 769667

You had a personal tragedy that involved the use of a gun. I can't say much for why the mental issue slipped by as it is a question on BATF forms and would assume they are serious about their intents. IMO the laws are adequate to prevent a person legally obtaining the weapon, but if there is lax enforcement, more laws make no sense unless they penalize law enforcement. Your views may make perfect sense to you so I'll leave it at that.