A Bankrupt 'Reform' ( bankrupsty bill) ---they march in step to the piper

[rodeodance]

.......These amendments came from the liberal camp -- senators such as Edward Kennedy, Russ Feingold, Richard Durbin and Charles Schumer -- and were easily dismissed by the Republican majority. Even more instructive was what happened when a staunch conservative, Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, tried to put a little balance into the bill.

When he was attorney general of Texas, Cornyn said, the notorious Enron bankruptcy case "opened my eyes to a very real abuse in the current bankruptcy system," the loophole that allows corporations to go "judge-shopping" for jurisdictions with permissive standards. Enron, which had 7,500 employees in Houston, filed for bankruptcy in New York, where it had 57 workers, because New York, along with Delaware, is known for being lenient on big business.

Congress recently passed a law restricting plaintiffs in class-action lawsuits from judge-shopping in the state courts, and Cornyn argued that it should also require corporations' bankruptcy cases to be filed in their principal place of business. Citing cases of Polaroid, Kmart, WorldCom and Enron, he said the judge-shopping loophole "serves to unfairly enable corporate debtors to evade their financial commitments, it badly disables consumers, creditors, workers, pensioners, shareholders and small businesses from pursuing and receiving reasonable compensation from bankruptcy proceedings."

No one rose to dispute Cornyn. So what happened? He withdrew the amendment, without a vote, "out of respect to the managers of this bill who say that amendments to this bill would endanger its ultimate passage."

A Cornyn spokesman told me that the bill sponsors said his amendment would cost them the support of the two Democratic senators from Delaware -- that favorite haven for big business. And, except for the lobbyists, no one even noticed.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A28522-2005Mar11.html


A Bankrupt 'Reform' (hypocritical bakruptcy bill)

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By David S. Broder
Sunday, March 13, 2005; Page B07

[sinkingfeeling]

1. Sad commentary on the state of the Corporate States of America

formerly known as the USA.