Can't go bankrupt without $$

So now that Tax Day has passed and you've received or are waiting to receive your refund check, what goodies are you going to buy?  A new HDTV?  Maybe take the family on a theme-park filled vacation?  Maybe just put the $$ away for a rainy day?

Some people aren't going to have as much fun with their refunds...

From USA Today  4/13/12:

Tax refunds being used to pay for bankruptcy filings -- "More than 200,000 money-strapped households will use their tax refunds this year to pay for bankruptcy filing and legal fees, says a new study by the National Bureau of Economic Research.

"The NBER research confirms what bankruptcy lawyers have long known: At the first part of the year, when Americans receive their tax refunds, there almost always is a spike in personal bankruptcy filings...

"The average cost of legal and administrative fees (to file for bankruptcy) jumped from $921 in 2005, before the (bankruptcy) reform law, to $1,477 just two years later, the U.S. Government Accountability Office says... Last year the average tax refund was $2,913..."

1)   Thanks President Bush for working for the banks and credit card companies in 2005 to ensure that filing for bankruptcy became as difficult as possible for those who desperately need it.  Your "compassionate conservatism" was much appreciated by those who never mattered to you...

2)  Can you imagine how bad things would be if we were not in a robust, fully self-sustaining recovery, as President Obama, his economics team and the media tell us repeatedly..

Wheww ~