Obama voted for it.
Likewise, amendments to the bill aimed at strengthening protections for people forced into bankruptcy by medical debts or who were members of the military.
Biden voted to defeat these amendments. Obama voted for them.
Likewise, an amendment that would have transferred responsibility in certain cases from debtors to the predatory lenders who helped push them into bankruptcy.
Biden voted against it. Obama voted for it.
Gwen Ifill should ask Joe Biden to explain these conflicts with the head of his own party's ticket.
Over the past eight years - and particularly since the housing bubble starting bursting - bankruptcy filings have skyrocketed. While there have certainly been abuses by millionaires using clever legal provisions to game the system, most bankruptcies are filed by people earning less than $30,000 a year. They have been caused by mortgage defaults, by loss of jobs, by the rising costs of everything, and by runaway medical bills triggered by the absence of health insurance or by health insurance companies whose primary mission appears to denial of benefits.
I want Joe Biden to "win" this debate. He deserves to win it. He will be the anti-Cheney. He will be a credit to his office. He will be a comfort to those who envision the possibility that, someday, another vice-president may be called upon to move into the Oval Office.
More important still, Joe Biden can play a huge role in bringing sanity to American foreign policy and in helping to restore our country's reputation in the eyes of the world.
But he is not without his warts. And these should be explored tonight. Not just because sunlight is the best disinfectant; it's also because transparency can signal the beginning of the process that forces our elected officials to make long-overdue changes.
Real bankruptcy reform should be high on the list of such changes.
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