We all pay more for everything that we buy because of the costs companies have to incur to cover those who do not pay their bills, and in particular, small businesses can be killed by this. If just a couple of critical creditors do not meet their obligations, small businesses can go out of business. 

We have a responsibility to honor our commitments. I think the worst message that I have heard in this whole debate is that what is really to blame is the marketing, that we should blame people for advertising credit, and it is their fault, it is not the fault of the person who fell for the marketing campaign, who accepted the obligation, accepted the money. It is somebody else's fault. 

When someone gets a credit card and charges it, they are responsible for paying it. Who does not know that? Everybody knows that. To say that it is not the individual's fault who has incurred the debt, but the person who gave them the credit, sends a terrible message to our country, that you do not have to be responsible for your own actions. 

Second, it hurts those who can responsibly use credit. I got one of those credit card applications, 10 or 15 of them, when I was in college. I used one of them and got a credit card and I paid it off every month. Because of that, it helped me with some financial spending ability, and helped me establish credit. I would hate to think that people who can use credit responsibly would be denied it because of those who cannot. 

One final point on the means testing issue. It is criticized that the means testing is based on your income from the past. First of all, what else can you base it on, really, except the existing record? But secondly, that is exactly the way we calculate child support payments, by your past income. 

Just like with child support, in this bill if there is an extenuating circumstance, if you go from being a $100,000 a year marketer to somebody working for $5 an hour at McDonald's, you can go to the judge and have that taken into consideration. 

It is just a misstatement of the facts to say that somehow those special circumstances are not considered in this bill. They are, just like they are in calculating child support. I do not think anybody on the other side of this debate would say that we should only base child support payments on projected future incomes, as offered by the person who has to meet the obligation. 

The means testing system works, and so does the bill.