The Two-Income Trap - Elizabeth Warren [63]
I (Elizabeth) stood waiting in the darkened hallway in a service entrance. I had been invited to meet with Mrs. Clinton, and there I stood, not knowing a single person either in the ballroom or among the entourage that trailed along with her. I listened as young women—presumably Mrs. Clinton’s aides—chatted quietly about who were the “major players” in the room and whether that neon-red jacket made one of the congresswomen look too pasty. Behind me, two beefy men in overcoats stood silently, continuously scanning in all directions.
Mrs. Clinton thrust her hand forward. “You must be Professor Warren. I read your op-ed in the New York Times about women and bankruptcy, and I want to talk with you.” A few weeks earlier I had written a column that sharply criticized a bill making its way through Congress that proposed to undercut bankruptcy protections for middle-class families in financial trouble.1 Before I could respond, Mrs. Clinton snapped her head sharply to the side and called to no one in particular, “Where’s lunch? I’m hungry.”
We were ushered to a small office with cracked leatherette chairs, carefully set out with lunch for the First Lady—half a hamburger, French fries, Diet Coke—and an iced tea for me. The small army of aides and security agents were left behind in the hallway; there were just the two of us in the tiny room.
Before she had taken a single bite of her hamburger, Mrs. Clinton tore into the business at hand: “I have two questions for you: How are women affected by the bankruptcy laws, and how did a woman get to be a chaired professor at Harvard Law School?”
For the next twenty-five minutes, I pounded Mrs. Clinton with graphs, charts, and projections. She ate fast and asked questions even faster. I have taught bankruptcy law to thousands of students—some of them among the brightest in the country—but I never saw one like Mrs. Clinton. Impatient, lightning-quick, and interested in all the nuances. In just half an hour, she went from knowing almost nothing about the bankruptcy system to grasping the counterintuitive twist that single mothers were helped when their ex-husbands filed bankruptcy because these men could discharge credit card debts and use the money to catch up on their child support. I explained to Mrs. Clinton how the pending bankruptcy bill would effectively dismantle bankruptcy protections for families, forcing single mothers to compete with legions of credit card bill collectors for an ex-husband’s income and making it more difficult for families to hold on to their homes.
At the end of our discussion, Mrs. Clinton stood up and said, “Well, I’m convinced. It is our job to stop that awful bill. You help me, and I’ll help you.” We talked university politics for a bit, then walked outside. As we stepped through the door, she grabbed me by the shoulder, turned me around for the obligatory photograph, shook my hand again, and headed off with her people.
Mrs. Clinton’s newfound opposition to the bankruptcy bill surprised me. Given her legal training and her devotion to women’s causes, I had certainly expected her to grasp the importance of the issue. But President Clinton’s staff had been quietly supporting the bankruptcy bill for several months. Bill Clinton wanted to show that he and other “New Democrats” could play ball with business interests, and the major banks were lobbying hard for changes in the bankruptcy laws. I had expected that it would take a lot more than thirty minutes to convince Hillary Clinton to depart from the position widely rumored to be supported by her husband.
But Mrs. Clinton stayed firm in her fight against “that awful bill.” She was convinced that the bill was “unfair to women and children,” and she intended to stand by her principles, even if it cost some Democratic party candidates campaign contributions.2 Over the ensuing months, she was true to her word. With her strong support,