Bankrupture
USA
Today and the Washington Post lead with a story tipped last week in the
Los
Angeles Times --the imminent tightening of bankruptcy laws. The New York Times
leads with the Senate's passage of an amendment to the tobacco tax bill that
would provide a tax break to low- and middle-income married couples. The
LAT goes with its disclosure of a secret agreement under which State
Farm Insurance agreed to pay $100 million to 117 homeowner policy holders who
suffered damage in the Northridge earthquake. Although State Farm admitted no
wrongdoing, the paper explains that--as confirmed by an internal memo it
obtained--the company, without notifying policyholders, lowered coverage limits
and backed off its previous policy of guaranteed property replacement. The
outcome could, says the paper, expose State Farm, the nation's richest insurer,
to thousands of similar claims by other policyholders whose coverage was
likewise covertly pared.
The House bill says that debtors whose earnings top the U.S. median family
income (about $51,500 for a family of four) and who can repay at least 20
percent of their debts, will have to. The bill was backed by credit card
companies and other lenders (who, reports the Post , have made campaign
contributions at twice the rate of the tobacco companies), who stand to recover
plenty once it's implemented. But, say USAT and the WP , many
Democrats, including President Clinton, think the bill punishes people who've
fallen on hard times while not holding the credit card issuers responsible for
promiscuous marketing. Additionally, they argue it will further hamper the
ability of ex-spouses of debtors to receive alimony and child support. The
WP and USAT note that some of the tougher aspects of the House
bill may fall by the wayside when the Senate takes up the issue later this
summer.
The Times lead details classic legislative logrolling: The $1.10 per
pack tax increase in the tobacco bill, originally all channeled to
smoking-related programs, offended many Republicans as classic tax-and-spend,
but Republican votes were picked up when the tax-cut provision was added. The
paper notes that the bill now not only rewards couples who otherwise would
suffer the "marriage penalty" at tax time, but also those who would not. The
Times also observes that un-related obstacles to bringing in additional
Senate votes remain, including whether and/or how much the bill should fund
tobacco price supports or programs for converting tobacco-based communities to
other enterprises.
In what a NYT top front story calls the "most significant legal
decision yet" on school vouchers, the Wisconsin Supreme Court held Wednesday
that Milwaukee could spend public monies to send students to religious schools.
The court said that this was not ruled out by current Wisconsin law or the
First Amendment because it had neither the purpose nor the effect of advancing
religion. This story is also on the USAT front and runs inside at the
WP and LAT . The papers' consensus is that this decision is headed
to the Supreme Court.
The WP 's off-lead tells of a widening schism between traditionally tight partners: big
business and the Republican party. It's the age-old conflict between
ideologues and accomodationists. Right now the Republican leadership is taking
business-annoying stands against increased exports to China and against
additional U.S. funding of the International Monetary Fund.
The LAT has a top front-page story about a Florida court's
unprecedented award of punitive damages (as part of a $1 million judgement) to
survivors of a dead smoker who had sued the Brown and Williamson Tobacco Co.
The story, by LAT tobacco specialist Myron Levin, notes that the
decision is only the second courtroom loss ever for a tobacco company in such a
suit, and is certain to trigger a slew of similar court cases and hence to
further dim any fleeting hopes the tobacco companies had of gaining blanket
legal liability protection. The story runs inside at the WP and
NYT and is flagged in the front-page news box at the Wall Street Journal .
The NYT reports that in an apparent attempt to spare President
Clinton embarrassment on his trip to China, officials there ordered bookstores
to remove a popular new book detailing the various Clinton sex
scandals. The book is called "Clinton: A President of Strong Drives."
The lead story in the "Money" section of USAT is Fed Chairman Alan
Greenspan's exuberant remarks about the U.S. economy. "The current economic
performance.is as impressive as any I have witnessed in my near half-century of
daily observation of the American economy," he's quoted as testifying to a
congressional committee. "It is possible that we have moved 'beyond history.'"
This story is also on the NYT front, the front of the LAT
business section, and runs inside at the WP . Of course, everybody hopes
it's true, but the papers have also moved a little beyond history: Somehow
these Quotations from Chairman Al stories never mention that Greenspan once, as
an outside consultant, gave Charles Keating's financial empire a clean bill of
health too.
