During the boom years of the late 1990s, the banking industry and its GOP allies pushed a federal bill that would have required overextended borrowers to pay more of their debts. Instead of being able to file for Chapter 7 bankruptcy, where you can wipe out much of what you owe, more people would have had to accept the tougher Chapter 13. The bankers suggested that Americans had become a nation of mall-trolling luxury lusters drunk on credit-card spending. The legislation got pushed aside as Congress dealt with the Iraq war and sputtering economy. But the image of a vox shopuli endured.
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