Molly Ivins Stated That MBNA Bought Moran's Support For MBNAs Credit Card Legislation

"Congress is on the verge of taking a final vote on the bankruptcy bill, the product of a five-year effort by credit-card companies to stack the law in their favor and against average citizens...one of the bill's most important sponsors, a congressman with financial problems, got a $447,500 loan -- as The New York Times genteelly put it, "on what appeared to be highly favorable terms," from (guess who? Right again) -- a major credit card company.

Rep. James P. Moran, Democrat of Virginia, got the loan from the MBNA Corp. of Delaware in 1998, the world's largest independent credit card agency, just one month before he signed on as the lead Democratic sponsor of the bill, giving it the appearance of a bipartisan effort. Quel coincidence, eh?

And that's just what Rep. Moran said. "The timing of my loan was wholly coincidental with the co-sponsorship of bankruptcy reform."

I find that entirely believable, since I live in Texas where such coincidences lie thick on the ground...

You would think Moran would have a little more sympathy for Americans caught in the toils of the bankruptcy laws -- his own financial problems stem from running up debts on his credit cards, stock market losses and paying for cancer treatment for his daughter. Ninety percent of all bankruptcies are caused by getting sick, getting laid off or divorce. But then, most Americans don't get half-million dollar loans that qualify as the largest mortgage package given by MBNA to any single debtor that year."

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