Republicans in the Senate are pushing through a bill to make bankruptcy for those who have legitimate cause to file a thing of the past. Credit card companies and retailers, who are complaining of the huge increase in bankruptcies filed recently, lobby the bill. Some reasons so many more bankruptcies have been filed in recent years: Unemployment forces once-creditworthy people to live on credit cards while out of work. If payments are missed, credit card companies jack up the interest rate to extortionary levels, as high as 25-30% depending on the state in which the issuer does business. The consumer is consequently placed in a debt grave--for every small shovelful he is able to dig out, the credit companies throw in two more. Another reason is rising medical costs and the vast number of uninsured citizens who are unable to pay horrendous hospital debts...again, they are forced to rely on credit cards to pay hospital bills, often after long periods on medical leave from work, and the debt grave cycle begins anew. There are many more reasons, too numerous to mention here, how the banks and retailers attack individuals who had no intention of ever stepping foot in the debt grave, but were thrown in by unfortunate circumstances. Bush is on the side of the banks (who would wonder, after he addressed a large audience of campaign supporters as \"the haves, and the have-mores\"--which drew gales of appreciative laughter from the wealthy audience. He then called them