Alan Lowenthal: “As I awoke this morning and read my local newspaper, I realized that my dear friend Greg Taylor is lying in a medical…”

“As I awoke this morning and read my local newspaper, I realized that my dear friend Greg Taylor is lying in a medical bed, mostly paralyzed and barely able to breathe, as he copes with ALS, or Lou Gehrig's disease. This past December, Greg lost his business. If this is not bad enough, Greg's long-time partner of 28 years, Albert Sanchez, was just furloughed, a member of the Department of Defense. Although he may now return back to work, this stress is unbearable as they both struggle to make house payments. I failed to mention, they also have a 19-year-old son. Today is the ninth day of this government shutdown. We still must do something to stop this shutdown. Speaker Boehner, the Democrats have compromised by agreeing to your budget numbers. Now it is time for you to compromise by giving us a clean bill to vote for. Let's stop this nightmare. I urge us to move forward. ____________________”