Bob Filner: “But I will tell the Members, I would say to the majority leader, the small business people in my community are worthy of…”

“But I will tell the Members, I would say to the majority leader, the small business people in my community are worthy of equal respect for working hard every day, for going to their jobs, for supporting their families, for working 16 and 18 hours a day. They conserve their electricity. They are trying to make their ends meet. They are facing an electricity market which puts them out of business. Scores of business people in my district are out of business, I would say to the leader. That is the tragedy of this crisis, and 65 percent of all small business in my county face bankruptcy this year. We need to support them. We need to talk about the glory of their jobs. How about the tough life that people on fixed incomes have, trying to make decisions between cooling their home and having a somewhat comfortable evening, even if their thermostats are set at 78 or 80 or higher; trying to buy their prescriptions; trying to buy their food? Their bill goes up from $40 or $50 to $150 or $200. They do not have the option, I would say to the majority leader, of asking the Navy to pay their bill. These are people who have worked their whole lives for America. They have been veterans.…”