Hillary: “There’s something wrong when you have more bankruptcies in America last year than college graduates.”
Too Many Bankruptcies?
Another Times report, this one from Des Moines, quotes Mrs. Clinton as follows: “There’s something wrong when you have more bankruptcies in America last year than college graduates.”It’s not clear what she means by “last year.” The Web site of the federal judiciary has bankruptcy statistics here. None are yet available for calendar year 2006; the most recent statistics are for the fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30. In fiscal 2006, the number of bankruptcy filings was 1.1 million, considerably down from 1.8 million in 2005 and 1.6 million in 2004.
Things get interesting, though, when you break down the fiscal 2006 figures by quarter:
| Oct.-Dec. 2005 |
667,431
|
| Jan.-March 2006 |
116,771
|
| April-June 2006 |
155,833
|
| July-Sept. 2006 |
171,146
|
The first quarter of fiscal 2006 accounted for a hair under 60% of all the year’s bankruptcies. A January 2006 ConsumerAffairs.com report explains why:
Bankruptcies jumped to a record number of filings in [calendar year] 2005 as consumers rushed filings to avoid changes to bankruptcy than became law October 17. . . .
Bankruptcy filings increased 31.6 percent to 2.04 million with about one in every 53 households filing for bankruptcy, according to the survey. The number of consumers seeking relief from their debts through bankruptcy was at an all-time high in 2005.
Since the new law went into effect October 17, few consumers have used the new bankruptcy system.
So Sen. Clinton is using a temporary spike in the bankruptcy rate as a rhetorical trope, never mind that it is almost certain to be followed by a long-term decrease.
Oh, and how did she vote on that new bankruptcy law? Well, the vote was 75-24, with one senator absent: New York’s Hillary Rodham Clinton.
January 30, 2007 - 02:43 PM on January 30th, 2007
Ah, never mind the real numbers. It sounds good for HilLiary to say that, therefore she does. Like most of her rhetoric, even a cursory examination of the facts reveal that she is just another flim-flam artist. A poser and a scam artist.
Now that she’s in full chameleon mode, the question is how many gullible dopes will be taken in by her superficial posing?
January 30, 2007 - 02:46 PM on January 30th, 2007
Hi Robert!! You know she really did look funny the other day in Iowa when she talked about dealing with bad men. It was priceless and for about a second I felt sorry for her. But just a second.