Yet again, the Republican party has proved that it is far from the party of free enterprise and capitalists.
They are exactly the opposite.
From our local business journal's daily e-mail:
New bankruptcy law removes safety net
Researchers from Harvard Law School and University of Nevada, Las Vegas say the new federal bankruptcy law fails to account for hundreds of thousands of entrepreneurs, independent contractors and self-employed individuals. The persons traditionally have turned to bankruptcy relief as an important safety net in their effort to recover from a failed undertaking.
Complete report:
Executive summary with .pdf link
Personal thoughts below the fold...
Having attempted to run a couple of businesses (magazine, distribution, insurance), I realize the amount of credit we relied on to make sure our basic needs were met when the going was rough. If it weren't for some benevolent grandparents with great rates on a loan, we would have had to file.
When the bankruptcy law came to the floor, I called my Congressman from Washington's 6th CD, and expressed my concern to the friendly staffer on the other line.
The staffer told me that there was no evidence of the impact this would have on small business owners. Thankfully, my Congressman voted against the bill.
Doing business buy/sell planing and supplying small business owners with insurance products, I realize that many of them have gone through bankruptcy early on in their business start-ups, and it isn't until AFTER that stress is removed do they have the ability to move forward and succeed.
There are also the small guys who start a venture, can't afford simple things like health insurance (this goes for Real Estate agents, and assorted sales people, too), they get sick and end up going bankrupt.
The options and the stories are many.
It leads me to believe that the Republican party is NOT the party of free enterprise. They are the party of BIG enterprise.
They are not the same.
Their corporatism mixes in religion (ala Amway) and an obsessive hunger for power that is non-ending.
As George Lakoff said the other night in Seattle, either the government is going to do things for us or corporations will.
Unfortunately, They Rule