Donna Smith<\/p>\n
At the heart of the matter is Bernie calling out the way Wall Street money has corrupted our democracy and perhaps most especially our election process.\u00a0 So when I went looking for ways to illustrate how that might have come into play on issues of deep concern to me, I found something that was instructive.<\/p>\n
Bernie\u2019s direct statements about the demands Wall Street makes on elected officials are not part of any \u201cartful smear\u201d campaign, as has been suggested.<\/p>\n
The issue of medical debt and bankruptcy has been a part of my life since I first discovered how many Americans are driven into bankruptcy by our for-profit healthcare system.\u00a0 On July 17, 2007, I testified on a witness panel for the U.S. House Judiciary Committee as an American who went bankrupt while insured.\u00a0 Sitting next to me on that witness panel was then Harvard Law Professor Elizabeth Warren, who was one of the co-authors of a groundbreaking study on medical debt and bankruptcy.\u00a0 Neither one of us knew each other nor did we have any way to know we would follow our respective paths into this election cycle.\u00a0 Despite a few subtle hints<\/a>, U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has stayed out of the endorsement game so far.<\/p>\n Two years later, I would appear on Bill Moyers Journal where they were able to retrieve a bit of that congressional testimony about 10.34 minutes into this segment that aired on May 22, 2009<\/a>.\u00a0 From that momentous point in my life forward, I have kept up with Sen. Warren\u2019s career, especially on the topics of interest to me.\u00a0 So when I recalled another time I heard Sen. Warren discuss issues related to bankruptcy law, I was taken by her clarity about what happens when representing Wall Street interests becomes more important than doing what is right for large numbers of Americans who have been devastated financially by health crises, medical debt and bankruptcy.<\/p>\n