On December 11, 2008, the Senate failed to muster the 60 votes needed to end debate so that it could vote on the Auto Bailout Bill. The vote was 52-35, eight short of the sixty needed. Reliance on media reports would lead one to believe that Republican senators single-handedly killed the bill.
Voting to end debate were 40 Democrats, 10 Republicans and 2 Independents. Voting not to end debate were 31 Republicans and 4 Democrats. Four Democrats did not vote, Biden, Wyden, Kennedy and Kerry. If they had voted, it is likely they would have voted to end debate and that would have been 56 votes to end debate. Considering that four Democrats voted no, the failure to end debate came about because the Democratic Senate Caucus was unable to get all its members to vote and was unable to persuade all its members to vote to end debate.
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