Biden, Warren and the Debate Fight a Decade in the Making

[BlueMTexpat]

This is a good article. It should not be considered as bashing, but rather as explanation. These issues may also be raised in tonight's debate.

The article describes why I am a staunch supporter of Elizabeth Warren.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/warren-biden-houston-debate-middle-class-883693/

Snippets

...
The friction between the frontrunners isn’t personal. It’s rooted in long standing policy differences, particularly over the rights of Americans to discharge their debts in bankruptcy. The last major overhaul of the nation’s bankruptcy laws took place during the W. Bush administration in 2005. And the GOP administration found an eager bi-partisan partner in its reform efforts in Joe Biden — then a senator from Delaware, a state whose lax financial regulations make it one of corporate America’s favorite places be headquartered, at least on paper.
...
The details of the 2005 bankruptcy bill are mind-numbing. But in its broadest strokes, the law made it more difficult for individuals to escape the yoke of their debts. The bill made debt from student loans nearly impossible to dismiss. It raised the bar on discharging medical debt. The law was particularly harsh on what’s known as unsecured debt. Examples of secured debt include mortgages and auto loans. These lenders can always seize the underlying asset if you fail to pay, foreclosing on your house or repossessing your car. The most common form of an unsecured loan? Credit card debt.

For Biden, the ostensible aim of the law was to crack down on fraud, what he termed “unnecessary and abusive bankruptcy” that allowed people with ability to repay their debts to use bankruptcy to slough off their obligations on their creditors, raising costs across the economy to the detriment of “every single American consumer.’’
...
Warren, whose academic legal research focused on bankruptcy, had seen first hand how and why families ended up in bankruptcy. She came to see bankruptcy as a tool for families in crisis, whether that was divorce, or job loss, or a serious health problem. Warren understood bankruptcy as a critical part of the safety net — a protection for Americans who would otherwise fall through the cracks.

These differences in worldview exploded onto the national stage in Senate Judiciary Committee hearings on the bankruptcy bill back in February 2005, when Biden and Warren — invited by then Massachusetts Sen. Ted Kennedy as “one of our Nation’s leading experts on bankruptcy law” — sparred over details like fair access to bankruptcy court and who should be responsible for medical debts.
...

The article also quotes from the exchange between Biden and Warren.

Just FYI: I am a Kennedy liberal and have been since I joined the Peace Corps in 1964. For me, EW is a Kennedy liberal. If that makes me an "Elizabeth Elite," as per Ed Rendell, then I am VERY proud to be one.

[turbinetree]

1. Count me in as being one also.....................

[blm]

2. WTF with Elizabeth Elite? Her motivation is ALWAYS the impact of economy on

Last edited Thu Sep 12, 2019, 09:40 PM - Edit history (1)

Working poor, working class, and middle class. She has studied it for decades and it has motivated her every interaction with politics.

Calling her support elitist is just plain deceptive and Sean Hannityish.

[BlueMTexpat]

5. That was the "slur"

perpetrated by Ed Rendell. And he is proud of it!

My background is much closer to Elizabeth's actual background than to any "elite" status.

[blm]

6. Same here.

[Fiendish Thingy]

3. K&R - the Bankruptcy law and vote for Iraq war are the two biggest Biden deal breakers for me nt

[BeyondGeography]

4. Two things that he can't deflect with his Obama shield