Biden Paid to Pass Bankruptcy Bill

Not that this is exactly news to many of us but Joe Biden's role in pushing an onerous, anti-consumer bankruptcy bill through Congress with the aid of the GOP and his BD buddies was, it turns out, paid for by large contributions from Delaware banking giant MBNA (Maryland Bank, National Association, now owned by Bank of America) to Biden's campaigns along with "consultancy fees" for his son, Hunter.

A son of Democratic vice presidential candidate Joe Biden was paid an undisclosed amount of money as a consultant by MBNA, the largest employer in Delaware, during the years the senator supported legislation that was promoted by the credit card industry and opposed by consumer groups.

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MBNA's consulting payments to Hunter Biden, first reported by The New York Times, followed his departure in 2001 from the company, where he had been an executive.

Obama opposed the bankruptcy law, enacted in 2005, while Biden supported it.

David Wade, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, said that "after working in the Clinton administration in the Department of Commerce on Internet privacy and online commerce issues, Hunter consulted for five years as an expert on these very same issues at a time of enormous expansion in online banking."

At the time Hunter Biden was receiving consulting payments from MBNA, he also was a Washington lobbyist at a firm he had co-founded.

The Obama campaign has spin on this, of course.

"He [Hunter] was not a lobbyist for MBNA, and his work had absolutely nothing to do with the bankruptcy bill. Zero. Nothing," said Wade.

Of course he didn't. It was just a coincidence. We've spent the 8 years of the Bush Administration learning just how many coincidences there are when it comes to laws and regulations favoring corpo's that just happen to be big contributors or provide cushy jobs for relatives of powerful Sens like Biden. Unfortunately, his role has been well-known and consistently criticized since he decided to weigh in.

Consumer and civil rights groups and unions, as well as Democratic opponents, had argued that the bankruptcy legislation was unfair to low-income working people, single mothers, minorities and the elderly, and would remove a safety net for those who have lost their jobs or face mounting medical bills.

The financial services industry made the case that bankruptcy frequently is a refuge of gamblers, impulsive shoppers, divorced or separated fathers avoiding child support, and multimillionaires who buy mansions in states with liberal exemptions to shelter assets from creditors.

When the Senate Judiciary Committee approved the bill early in 2005, Biden, Dianne Feinstein of California and Herb Kohl of Wisconsin were the only Democrats to vote with the Republican majority. Biden also voted for the bill on final passage in the Senate, while Obama voted against it.

MBNA employees have poured more than $200,000 into Biden's Senate campaigns over the past two decades, making donors working for the credit card company the senator's largest source of campaign money.

(emphasis added)

But never mind. Obama's campaign has an explanation, and it's one we've heard from Blue Dog Dems before: "It's the best we could get, and we made made it better than it would have been."

On the bankruptcy bill, the senator "took plenty of knocks from the largest employer in his state because he demanded changes," said Wade, the Obama campaign spokesman. "Sen. Biden improved the bill for low-income workers, women, and children. There were times when he believed amendments on both sides would have blown up a bipartisan compromise backed by three quarters of the Senate. At those moments, Sen. Biden had to make the tough calls and he voted to pass a bill."

Uh-huh. That's convincing.

Isn't it?

If not and you want to remain a loyal Democrat, you'd better get used to applauding the way they pimp for corporations and get a raft of excuses ready. You're gonna need em. I'd suggest the old "Well, we gotta get elected somehow! Campaigns are expensive!" (although that does bring up the ugly subject of the Dems' refusal to push decent CFR legislation the last 2 years).

Comments

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