Saturday, September 02, 2006

Why Does George Allen Hate Our Soldiers?



Last year when Congress passed the Bankrupcy bill written by the credit card industry, Democratic Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois introduced the G.I. Protection Amendment to exempt our troops serving in Iraq.

The logic as David Sirota of Working for Change explains is that "our soldiers serving in Iraq have enough to worry about - and gutting their bankruptcy protections while they were deployed was something Durbin thought was unacceptable."

As retired Navy captain Chalker W. Brown told the New York Times months before the vote: "The last thing you want is a young sailor programming a Tomahawk missile in the Persian Gulf who is worrying about whether his car is being repossessed back home."
Indeed, a substantial number of troops in Iraq who are in the National Guard were forced to deploy and leave family and generous paychecks behind; and in light of their sacrifices to country, Durbin's amendment was a no-brainer.

For surely any flag-waving senator who cared about our men and women in uniform bravely fighting to preserve Western civilication in the epic 21st century battle against fascist extremists would not deny them this singular exemption, right??

WRONG.

The record shows that only 38 senators consented to Durbin's amendment; perhaps for the remaining 52 senators, support the troops is nothing more than a campaign jingle.

And it gets worst. Loan sharks then decided it was a great idea to target soldiers and let the free market and good times roll.

[A]ccording to a new Pentagon report highlighted by USA Today, "As many as one in five members of the armed services are being preyed on by loan centers set up near military bases that can charge cash-strapped military families interestso of 400% or more."
Total and absolute disgrace. Prior to the bill, nearly 16,000 active duty members had filed for bankruptcy protection each year, the General Accounting Office reported.

Howling Latina thinks this bill was an abomination; and a perfect example of public leaders caring more about fat cat corporate friends than people who elected them and whom they're sworn to serve.

And now that the fall campaign season is around the corner, HL thinks Virginia voters should know that Sen. George Allen was one of the venal senators to vote against the Durbin amendment; his vote allows moneychangers to prey upon our military men and women without any financial downside.

What's more, his opposition to the G.I. Protection Amendment is further evidence of his callous nature; a Republican con-man who feigns concern with flashy lip service; all show and no substance. Vote against the troops and hope by Election Day no one remembers.

Well, Senator Allen, we didn't forget; and we plan to hold you accountable for letting the sharks infest and spawn in the financial waters of our country to the detriment of our soldiers.

Comments:
Why should we protect people stupid enough to patronize a place called "E$Z Payday Loans"?

Then again, we're already rebuilding a city for people too stupid to live above sea level, so I guess that's par for the course.
 
I stand corrected, all rich people were born that way. You win this round, HL!
 
The other reason the legalized (barely) loan sharks target young military troops is because they can take advantage of the fact that the troops are frequently "out in the field" during exercises and will frequently miss payment deadlines, so they can rack up late charges far beyond the capped (at one time) 33% interest rates. Then they can go after the troops' pay by calling the military unit commander and getting our troops' own command structure involved in enforcing the so-called loans.

Just what we need. Taxpayer funded extortion from servicemen and women. We'd be better off bombing the check cashing and legalized loan sharks than we are bombing Iraqi insurgents.
 
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