Banks and credit card companies spent ten years pressuring Congress to reform federal bankruptcy rules and make it harder for people to erase their non-mortgage debt. In 2002, Common Cause reported that the industry spent over $63 million in campaign contributions from 1995 to 2001.  It finally paid off in 2005 when their bankruptcy reform bill passed Congress and was signed into law.

But according to an article by Bloomberg, this law may have backfired on the companies that also held large subprime mortgage-related interests:

Without bankruptcy protection for their credit card debt, financially struggling families are paying off their credit cards at the expense of their mortgages. So companies like Citigroup, Washington Mutual and Household that have a stake in both interests, and spent millions in campaign contributions to successfully eliminate bankruptcy protections for people struggling with medical bills, job loss or divorce (the leading causes of personal bankruptcy), are getting battered as foreclosure rates reached record levels.

It would be poetic justice if it weren't for the fact that the CEO that led Citigroup through the subprime implosion received a $68 million retirement package after being forced to resign, while Americans losing their homes to foreclosure get nothing from the companies that spent millions pressuring Congress to create the lax regulatory environment responsible for this mess in the first place.