Roy Blunt: “this week the majority brought a bill to the floor to talk about gas prices and energy-producing companies. That was…”

“this week the majority brought a bill to the floor to talk about gas prices and energy-producing companies. That was yesterday. Today the majority brought another bill and tried to move away from that bill. We ought to be talking about gas prices. We should be talking about what impacts so many families and so many businesses and so many individuals. I talked to somebody on the phone just yesterday, a friend of mine from St. Charles, MO, where gasoline is about $3.50 a gallon. That is a little lower than it is maybe in other places where it is $3.90, the national average, though I am sure we can find a place in St. Charles where the gas is $3.90. But my friend talked about gas prices, how it affects his business, the restaurant business. I have said on this floor before, when American families stand before that gas pump and the cost goes from $40 to $50 to $60 to $70, almost every family in America watches those numbers and thinks of something they were going to do that week or that weekend that they are not going to do. Certainly, if you are in the restaurant business, as my friend is, you know that. But he said: I was at the gas station just yesterday, and there was a woman there in a car with a child. She said: Could you just give me $5? I don't think I can get home with the gas I have. I don't have any money. I need to put a little more than a gallon of gas in the car just to know I can get home. Could you put $5 of gas in the car for me?…”