Dave Ramsey Rips Bankruptcy Bill
First, double the Hat Tip to e-mailer Dave B, who limited my mistake about Ramsey’s silence on the bill to 3 hours instead of 3 days.
For those who don’t know, Dave Ramsey is a nationally syndicated talk radio host, columnist, and financial planner who covers financial topics from a Christian perspective. He speaks to what the GOP likes to think is its core constituency every day.
Ramsey is not only against the bill, he is mad as heck about it (he’s a Christian, remember).
Go here to the indispensable Jackson’s Junction (HT, InstaPundit) for the video (Window Media Player) of Ramsey’s interview with CNBC’s Maria Bartiromo, which I believe was on Friday afternoon. Make sure your computer is adequately ventilated, because Ramsey is on fire:
- “This bankruptcy legislation is absolutely horrible.”
- “I’m ashamed of the Republicans on this. They have totally added a billion dollars to Visa’s bottom line on this bill, and there’s no reason, except that Visa, Household Finance, AFS, MasterCard, all spent more money on this piece of legislation being lobbied than any other piece of legislation ever in history. This is bought and paid for by the bankers, baby….”
- “The American Bankruptcy Institute statistics tell us that less than 2% of (Chapter 7-Ed.) bankruptcy has any kind of fraud or ability to repay. 98% of the Chapter 7s filed last year were no-asset cases, meaning that the people had NO ASSETS–that’s how this works.”
- (to the banking industry) “Quit your whining and getting Congress to fix your business model.”
- “All of the checks and balances that are in this bill are available now at a (bankruptcy) judge’s discretion.”
- “They (the lenders) caused their (own) problem by lending money to people who shouldn’t have been lent money….They bit off on this, they should have to chew it.”
- “19% of the people who filed for bankruptcy last year are college students, and these bozos are at the campuses giving out free T-shirts to people who don’t have a job to get them into debt, and then run to Congress to fix their business-model problem. It’s WRONG.”
If it were legal, I’d transcribe the whole thing; it’s THAT good. If you’re against the “reform” bill, go see the whole thing–it will make your day.
FWIW, I e-mailed congrats to Ramsey’s web site and encouraged him to join with other Christian financial counselors to speak out against the bill and encourage the president to veto it if it gets to him. You might consider doing the same. Go here, scroll to the bottom and click on “if you can’t figure out where to send it.”
