1. You need 60 votes to get cloture to vote on a bill, then a simple majority can pass a bill. When 41 people or so prevent you from getting those 60 votes, then you have a filibuster and... it doesn't matter if a majority of the Democrats show up for work that day, the minority prevents them from being able to pass the bill.
2. Here we had 58 Democrats and Republicans voting for the bill to go to a vote and 40 Republicans voting against cloture and two not voting. That's 100 senators. All the Democrats were there. The minority stopped them from being able to pass the bill.
If you don't understand this part of legislative procedure, I suggest you learn about it because the Republicans have done record numbers of them.
They count on us not getting that the reason things are not getting done in the Senate is that they have actively been working to prevent them from happening, thinking it will help them in the next election.
And in 2010, a lot of people voted just how they expected and so they started being even worse about it.
3. The bill was written by a bunch of Republican senators. They all were instrumental in writing the bill the way they wanted it and then filibustered it. Senators Mike Johanns from Nebraska, Richard Burr from North Carolina , Pat Toomey from Pennsylvania, and John Boozman from Arkansas actually co-wrote this piece of legislation to help our veterans, only to turn around and vote to kill it.
4. The bill was not spending more money and increasing the deficit. It was paid for. The cost of the bill - which was to be spent over a five-year period - had been fully offset, thereby adding nothing to the deficit as a result of the effort. So try to look for another excuse why these guys wrote the bill, made sure it was paid for, then voted to keep it from passing.
Remember this when you go to the polls on November 6. I am sure a lot of vets will do just that and vote for Democrats that care.
Martha Benner, Deming