One of the big pieces of unfinished business Congress left behind before recess is reform of bankruptcy law. With a decade of steady and disturbing growth in filings now exploding, this business cannot remain unfinished for long.

The economy is humming, unemployment’s on the run, yet a record 1.3 million — one in 100 — American households will file for bankruptcy this year, an increase of nearly one-third from 1996. In Maine, the situation is even worse. From January through October, there were 3,536 filings, compared with 2,487 for the same period last year. That’s up 42 percent. And 1996 was up 34 percent from the year before. Mainers, like the rest of the country, are spending money like there’s no tomorrow.

Guess what? It’s almost tomorrow.

Just before Congress adjourned early this month, the National Bankruptcy Review Commission released its two-year study with recommended changes. Consideration of those changes will begin in earnest when lawmakers reconvene in January, but first Congress must reach consensus on who’s to blame — lenders or borrowers.

Consumer advocates, naturally, blame the lenders. Banks, they say, have swamped the country with credit cards. The nation is awash in plastic and helpless consumers have no choice but to consume their way through the flood.

Creditor groups say the problem is that bankruptcy laws, originally designed to protect those dealing with unforeseen difficulties, such as catastrophic illness or the loss of a job, are being abused by people merely ducking responsibilities. Increasingly lenient courts are allowing debtors to exempt more and more assets, leaving creditors empty-handed. The $40 billion mess defunct debtors will leave behind this year (at least $2 billion of that by repeat bankrupts) inevitably will be cleaned up by earnest, bill-paying citizens in the form of higher prices and interest rates.

The nine-member commission, while outlining the problem quite exhaustively, was unable to reach a firm conclusion on the central issues, with many of its recommendations passing by 5-4 votes. Overall, though, the report comes down slightly on the side of borrowers. It would make it somewhat easier to walk away from debt.

For example, a majority of the commission favors expanding the value and amount of personal property that is exempt from attachment in Chapter 7, would make collecting on student loans more difficult and would hamper the ability of individual creditors to make repayment arrangements with those in bankruptcy.

Congress should view this populist, perhaps more popular, path with alarm. While banks are not the cuddliest of creatures, they have not yet begun kneecapping those who don’t spend beyond their means. Blaming credit cards for ruinous debt is rather like blaming gas pedals for speeding. Cards are a convenience; the burden of abusing that convenience should be borne by those who enjoyed the expensive dinners, the electronic gadgetry, the cruises — not by the rest of society.

Bankruptcy must be restructured as a lifesaver that allows true victims of misfortune to keep their homes, a car to get to work, the tools of their trade. Everyone else just has to quit whining and pay up.