Warren on Hillary Clinton and the Bankruptcy Bill of 2005: I assume she would have voted against it"

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from Jinchi blogspot in 2007:


(There's) a common misperception that she supported the 2005 Bankruptcy Bill.

Some of the confusion seems to come from this recent PBS interview between Maria Hinojosa and Elizabeth Warren (a bankruptcy expert):

HINOJOSA: There's a story that I wanna share with our listeners that you actually shared when you were on Now—on our TV program and it's a fascinating story about Hillary Clinton. You said that when the credit card companies were pushing for legislation to tighten the bankruptcy laws, and this is when President Clinton was in office you were summoned by Hillary Clinton to discuss this legislation. And you sat down with her in this back room and you filled her in on what this new bankruptcy law was gonna mean.

And she at that moment said, "Oh my God. We have to stop this law. It's not gonna happen." It gets passed in Congress and Bill Clinton, because of Hillary's conversation with you more or less, vetoes that bill. Now we fast forward to Senator Hillary Clinton, bankruptcy law comes for a vote and she votes for it?

WARREN: Yes.

Reading that excerpt of the transcript, it's easy to assume that Warren is confirming that Hillary Clinton voted for the bankruptcy bill (S.256) which stripped protections for people in debt.


In fact, Hillary Clinton was the sole Senator not voting on the bill. This was pointed out incriminatingly by Jackson Williams at the Huffington post.

Speaking of profiles in courage, the bankruptcy bill passed the senate by a vote of 74-25. You'll notice that adds up to 99 senators. So who happened to be the one senator absent that day? Why, Hillary Clinton, the wife of the man who twice vetoed that turkey

But in fact it was also clarified by Elizabeth Warren in the PBS interview cited above:

WARREN: Mrs. Clinton, in a much more secure position—as Senator a couple of years later—when the bill came up once again—Senator Clinton was not there—the day of the vote. It was the day that President Clinton, you may remember, had heart surgery. But she issued a very strong press release condemning the bill and I assume if she had been there that she would have voted against it.

From Senator Clinton's official statement on the bill:

This bankruptcy bill fundamentally fails to accord with the traditional purposes of bankruptcy, which recognize that we are all better off when hard-working people who have suffered financial catastrophe get a "fresh start" and a second chance to become productive and contributing members of society. With the passage of this legislation, which makes obtaining this fresh start more expensive and more difficult, we are ensuring that many responsible Americans will continue to be buried under mountains of debt, and unable to take back control and responsibility for their lives.

In the days before S.256 was finally brought to the floor Senator Clinton voted for every amendment which would have added consumer protections to the bankruptcy bill. Amendments which were repeatedly rejected by both the Republican majority and far too many Democrats. She even voted against cloture in an attempt to keep the final bill from coming to a vote at all.


read: http://jinchi.blogspot.com/2007/03/hillary-clinton-and-bankruptcy-bill-of.html

[wyldwolf]

1. STOP! You'll short circuit the Bern Hive Collective

[FreakinDJ]

4. They are discussing the 2001 Bankruptcy Bill

The Bankruptcy Reform Act of 2001 that Sen. Clinton voted for eventually died in Congress, but a similar measure became law in 2005. Sen. Clinton has said she would have opposed the 2005 bill, but she missed the vote because she was with her husband during surgery.

The 2001 bill "had some things I agreed with and other things I didn't agree with, and I was happy that it never became law," Sen. Clinton said at a Jan. 15 debate in Las Vegas.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/SB120113997862512117

So much for "Actual Facts"

[speaktruthtopower]

2. NY Senators

have certain constraints.

[BlueMTexpat]

3. OMG - actual facts!

Thank you.

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5. kick

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6. »

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7. kick