When the credit card companies are calling the shots, who is a victim of a natural disaster? Only those who can prove up just the right mix of circumstances.
Senator Vitter, R-LA, finally put in a bill on Friday to amend the bankruptcy laws. Victims of Katrina will face months without income, unexpected expenses while they take refuge, and damage when they return. Data show that following a hurricane, there’s about a 50% increase in the growth in bankruptcy filings — and more in places where flooding has been a problem. So Senator Vitter wants to help out — but who exactly will he help? Is it the victims or the creditors?
Senator Vitter’s proposed bill gives some limited relief to “victims of a natural disaster” but it defines the victims as only those whose financial condition is “materially, adversely affected due to damage sustained to the principal residence, where such residence is in a natural disaster zone, as a result of a natural disaster,” or an inability to remain in such principal residence, or an inability to work at the debtor’s place of employment located in a natural disaster zone. Wow. Welcome to the new game of Prove That You Deserve a Chance.
Let’s get this straight. As long as your house wasn’t damaged so much that it materially, adversely affected your financial condition (or that you had insurance), and you can go back to the job you had on August 29:
- If your husband was killed in the hurricane and his income is gone, you aren’t a victim.
- If you have insurance to cover the house, but not the furnishings, your car, or your clothes, you aren’t a victim.
- If you had your back broken by a falling tree and ran up $100,000 in medical bills, you aren’t a victim.
- If you had lost your job the week before the hurricane struck and you can’t find a new job now, you aren’t a victim.
- If you are a traveling salesman, or a repairman working out of your van, and your vehicle and its contents (either inventory or tools of the trade) were lost in the flood, you aren’t a victim.
Sen. Feingold’s and Rep. Conyers’ bills have a simple test. If you lived in or had your principal place of business in the disaster zone as of August 29 and your finances are materially adversely affected by the disaster, you’re a victim. What’s wrong with that?
Are the credit industry guys so worried about some unworthy Louisiana resident slipping through and getting a little help that they are dictating terms to a U.S. Senator? Senator Vitter took an oath to represent the people of Louisiana, and in their time of greatest need, maybe we should ask who wrote the bill with his name on it.
