Elizabeth Warren released a proposal Tuesday to overhaul the country’s personal bankruptcy laws, pitting herself against rival Joe Biden by taking aim at landmark legislation from 2005 that he supported and she opposed.
The Massachusetts senator’s plan is meant to make it easier for Americans who are in debt to get relief through bankruptcy.
“Thanks in part to the 2005 bankruptcy bill, our current system makes it far too hard for people in need to start the bankruptcy process so they can get back on their feet,” Warren wrote in her plan, which does not directly name Biden but makes extensive reference to the bill he supported.
Warren, then a Harvard law professor, vigorously opposed the 2005 bankruptcy bill that Biden, as a Delaware senator, fought hard to pass because it benefited his home state. The 2005 legislation, in general, made it easier for creditors to collect and more onerous and expensive for individuals to get out of their debts. This would benefit many of the credit card companies that Biden has long been accused of cozying up to.
Immediately after Biden entered the presidential race in April 2019, Warren accused him of having been on the “side of the credit card companies.”
“Our disagreement is a matter of public record,” she said at the time.
Warren admitted in her plan that she “lost that fight in 2005, and working families paid the price.” However, she added that she “didn’t stop fighting to hold the financial industry accountable,” referring to her instrumental role in creating the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the federal agency responsible for consumer protection in the financial sector, founded in 2011 after the 2008 financial crisis.
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