As the role of the Bush administration in the economic crisis continues to emerge, a bill slated for a January unveiling may address a long overlooked facet of personal bankruptcy.

A recent installment in a New York Times series about the financial crisis paints a bone-chilling picture of the Bush administration’s role in fueling the meltdown while a Dec. 23 Time magazine article describes a long-overdue reform that would allow bankruptcy judges to order loan modifications for mortgages on primary residences.

In its Dec. 20 article, the Times reviews the administration’s housing policy, citing both items of public record and “interviews with dozens of current and former administration officials.” What emerges is a “series of piecemeal policy prescriptions that lagged behind the escalating crisis.”

By mid-September, the March fire-sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase (aided by $30 billion funneled through the Federal Reserve) had become stale news amid reports of record waves of home foreclosures. On Sept. 16, President Bush signed on to a deal that channeled another $85 billion toward the foundering insurance giant, AIG. On the heels of that deal, Bank of America had followed JPMorgan Chase’s lead with a last-minute “rescue” of Merrill Lynch, and Lehman Brothers had choked on the dead money of its own bad loans. On Sept. 18, says the Times, Bush and his economics team listened as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson reported, in turn, a nationwide credit panic that, overnight, had banks refusing to lend, followed by the conclusion that in order to avoid disaster Bush would have no choice but “to sign off on the biggest government bailout in history.”

Taking a moment to ponder the news, an apparently befuddled Bush offered his reaction:

“How did we get here?”

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