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March 16, 2005
Dave Ramsey on Bankruptcy Legislation
A few days ago, I e-mailed Glenn Reynolds (Instapundit) in response to his observation that Dave Ramsey had been silent on the bankruptcy legislation passed Friday by the US Senate. I've never earned a link from Glenn, and my e-mail wasn't associated with a post, so I didn't think anything of it. To my surprise, he e-mailed back. Moreover, he revised his post to include my e-mail.
I sent the e-mail to let Glenn know that I heard Dave rail against the bankruptcy legislation as bought by predatory lenders and he accused the Republican Party of having their votes bought. Isn’t it odd that a champion of personal responsibility and capitalism would be against a bankruptcy bill that would make it harder for people to shirk their legal responsibility to their debtors?
Tonight Ramsey spoke passionately on the subject. You could hear the indignation in his voice as he denounced the Republican Party as having sold out to "evil corporations" and he called the legislation "a piece of crap!"
Dave is spot-on with his criticism of the Republican Party here as he understands the line that Christians should draw between personal responsibility and evil predatory corporate influence disguised as honest business. In the couple years that I’ve listened to him, I’ve rarely heard him call someone or an institution “evil” and I’ve never heard him say “evil corporations,” but I'm glad he did in this instance. Too often political economic ideology obfuscates spiritual discernment. I’m not excusing irresponsible use of credit, but predatory lenders are also culpable here. If the credit card companies want fewer bankruptcy’s, perhaps they shouldn’t extend credit to every Tom, Dick, and Barbara (and their dogs).
Jim, if it’s not too late, Dave Ramsey would make a fine interview for your forthcoming Christianity Today article.
Posted by Rick at March 16, 2005 03:33 AM
Comments
I interviewed Dave Ramsey on Friday. A great interview. He is passionate and persuasive on the moral bankruptcy of this financial bankruptcy bill.
I'm filing the story with Christianity Today later today.
I'll be posting about the silence on this bill of the Christian groups--such as FRC and CWA--who lobby in Washington. They worked to kill the terrible Schumer ammendment, but then simply went to sleep and let the Senate Republicans push through an oppressive piece of legislation.
Posted by: Jim Jewell at March 16, 2005 06:42 AM
I caught the tail end of a Ramsey interview on MSNBC the other night. I like what he said, and I anxiously await Jim's story.
Here's my question. When Christians oppose certain economic legislation for moral reasons, shouldn't be able to turn around offer something of an alternative piece of legislation? I'll say more about this later, but just something to think about.
Posted by: Matt at March 16, 2005 10:29 AM
I heard Ramsey go off for an hour about it last Thursday.
Posted by: iMonk at March 16, 2005 12:09 PM
Check out this NRO piece. I'm not sure who to believe.
http://nationalreview.com/comment/zywicki200503160744.asp
Posted by: Matt at March 16, 2005 11:15 PM
Intersting stuff. I wonder if Dave Ramsey has heard those stats. Maybe parts of his criticism of the Republican Party should be retracted? Someone should send him an e-mail of that article. I still think the legislation is bad for the same reasons as Ramsey. Maybe I'm not as down on my party now though having read the NRO piece. Matt, maybe you should post a link to this article and raise the same question to our readers?
Posted by: Rick Brady at March 17, 2005 01:46 AM
Will do, hombre.
Posted by: Matt at March 17, 2005 02:36 AM