PhillyDeals: Trying to keep the health-care debate civil

Town-hall forums have gone poorly for Sen. Arlen Specter (D., Pa.) and Rep. Mike Castle (R., Del.), as angry critics of President Obama shouted down their attempts to solicit voters' views.

It's tough to feel sorry for congressmen. But the nation needs smart and civil debate of the plans, costs, and fears surrounding Obama's industry-backed proposals to extend medical benefits, curb private insurer powers, collect intimate data, and tax the wealthy.

The host of tonight's 6:30 town-hall forum on Obama's health-care proposals, Presbyterian Rev. Bill Golderer of Broad Street Ministry, 315 S. Broad St., says he's encouraging tough questions of the guest, U.S. Rep. Joe Sestak (D., Pa.).

"Somebody needs to hold these people accountable," Golderer told me.

But Golderer also said his congregation won't tolerate bad manners. "Everyone is welcome, but that doesn't mean you're allowed to act any way you want," he explained. "We entertain some pretty rough customers here on Broad Street. If you come here, billionaire or pauper, with violence in speech or fist, you won't be allowed."

Golderer says his downtown congregants (he also heads the growing Arch Street Presbyterian congregation) see a big need for better medical and human services, but also deep division in how to organize and pay for it.

"There's a real sense of desperation," Golderer says. "The city is out of money. It's out of ideas. We don't trust. It's real combustible."

Golderer promised not to let Sestak, the prolix former admiral who wants to take Specter's Senate seat, run away with the microphone, saying: "I'm the moderator. I'll keep him in line."

Golderer backs the president's broad goals, at least. But he also sees himself as a bridge between his church's wealthy patrons and its poor neighbors: "I'm a former scratch golfer, from the 'mean streets' of Wayne, trying to convince people there can be enough for everyone."

Advanta Corp., which said last month it would cut 200 of its 400 remaining workers by the end of September, is running low on cash and ideas.

Advanta has been several things under its entrepreneurial founder, the late Jack Alter, and his son, tennis and art patron Dennis Alter.

It's been subprime lender to teachers and nurses, national credit-card giant, home mortgager, small-business Visa and MasterCard promoter, defendant in lawsuits filed by angry business partners and former executives, Wall Street loan securitizer, and hawker of uninsured, high-interest notes to small investors.

What's next? Maybe the end: After canceling its remaining card accounts and writing off more than $300 million on net sales of around $3 million last quarter, Advanta says (in its quarterly report to the Securities and Exchange Commission): "Our ability to continue as a going concern may depend on our ability to successfully implement a plan for new business opportunities."

Edward M. Liddy stepped down yesterday as caretaker CEO of troubled insurance giant American International Group Inc., making way for combative Robert Benmosche.

Liddy took the public fall: In angry congressional hearings, for multibillion-dollar losses contracted by his predecessors, for Federal Reserve intervention to save AIG and bail out Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and other AIG clients, and for fat bonuses paid to other AIG employees while the company was on public support.

Liddy's own pay: "$1" and "a few bruises," he wrote in a farewell letter Monday. "I had no idea what I was in for," he added.

He praised AIG workers' "can-do" attitude amid loss and abuse. He took credit for reorganizing the battered company by preparing the sale of 20 business lines, including the planned spin-off and public stock offering for Wilmington-based Alico.

And he offered a parting view of "this extraordinary phase" of U.S. history: "America has lost confidence in corporations. Restoring that confidence is the first step toward regaining our footing in the global economy."