Older Americans Filing Bankruptcy In Higher Numbers

The fastest growth in Chapter 7 Bankruptcy filing is among those 55 and older. Chapter 7 bankruptcy allows for the liquidation of assets to pay creditors as opposed to Chapter 13 filing which allows debtors to pay off debts over time.

Researchers John Golmant and Tom Urlich conclude that rising healthcare costs and mortgage debt are key factors.

Golmant and Urlich expect increased bankruptcy filing rates for older Americans to continue, based on the reduced income retirees face coupled with rising healthcare costs, according to the report.

Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy, agrees with the report's conclusions but notes the study ends at 2002 and the figures since then "have gotten worse."

This study points out the economic problems facing those later in life when there are less options available to solve the problem. The new bankruptcy laws, which were written by the credit card companies, make it much harder to just dispose of your debts and start over. It is time for both national health care and revisions to the bankruptcy laws. Do we want a nation of bankrupt seniors? Is this what we want for our parents in their golden years? Is this the reward for a lifetime of hard work? With the housing bubble about to burst and a possible recession in our future, these numbers will only grow.

Diplomats Returning From Iraq With PTSD

State Department employees serving in Iraq are suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder just like soldiers. These employees, who seldom leave the fortified green zone, hear daily gun fire and frequent mortar and rocket fire.

U.S. diplomats are returning from Iraq with the same debilitating, stress-related symptoms that have afflicted many U.S. troops, prompting the State Department to order a mental health survey of 1,400 employees who have completed assignments there.

Imagine what is happening to the children of Iraq who are seeing bloodshed and violence on a daily basis. Our troops who make it out alive and physically uninjured will come home mental casualties of this war. The administration chose to cut Veterans Benefits which will be even more needed by our returning soldiers. How can anyone believe them when they constantly insist they support the troops yet cut the very funding necessary to help the troops? The cost of this war will be over 1 trillion dollars and a generation of mentally damaged troops. What a disgrace!!

Read the rest of this article here.

Infant Mortality Grows In The South

Are cuts in welfare and Medicaid responsible for a leap in the rate of infant mortality in the South? No one is sure but the trends are alarming as the infant mortality rate skyrocketed in Mississippi.

To the shock of Mississippi officials, who in 2004 had seen the infant mortality rate — defined as deaths by the age of 1 year per thousand live births — fall to 9.7, the rate jumped sharply in 2005, to 11.4. The national average in 2003, the last year for which data have been compiled, was 6.9. Smaller rises also occurred in 2005 in Alabama, North Carolina and Tennessee. Louisiana and South Carolina saw rises in 2004 and have not yet reported on 2005.

Most striking, here and throughout the country, is the large racial disparity. In Mississippi, infant deaths among blacks rose to 17 per thousand births in 2005 from 14.2 per thousand in 2004, while those among whites rose to 6.6 per thousand from 6.1. (The national average in 2003 was 5.7 for whites and 14.0 for blacks.)

The Republicans constantly talk about being a culture of life yet every day we see results of their policies whether it is the War in Iraq, the lack of Gun Control or the cutting of social programs that lead to more and more death. I think it is time that they stop using the term "A Culture of Life". It is false advertising at the highest level.