Osama Bin MBNA

More than a few pundits have posited the notion that reforming Social Security is a smokescreen for the far more insidious and laughably named "Bankruptcy Abuse and Prevention and Consumer Protection Act of 2005," which the Senate is expected to pass any day now.

I don't think it's hyperbole to call this bill economic terrorism on the part of the credit card companies and the whorish senators doing their bidding. In applying a standard, across-the-board "means test" to determine who gets to file for bankruptcy under the less-invasive Chapter 7 code, people who've become insolvent as a result of illness will be just as screwed to the wall as some hapless Imelda Marcos wannabe who maxes out her Nordstrom account on shoes. Meanwhile, the credit card companies can go right on charging usurious interest rates and ridiculously high late payment fees. Some consumer protection, right?

If Joe Biden tries to nab the Democratic nomination in 2008, folks need to remember he's the senator from MBNA, not Delaware.