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There has been a lot of pressure on harry reid to do this in the lame duck session. what is going to be debated is why he is doing it now, before the senate takes up the tax cult legislation, because many people who are for repeal were hoping that maybe they could get those two other republicans to vote for at least starting the process if they got the tax cut legislation out of the way. that is what it is very controversial. would this be perhaps just part of the strategy, given the fact they have quite a bit on their plate, as you know, the clock is ticking before the end of the year, they needed to get this down before they, perhaps, tackle the tax cuts? that is part of it there is no question about it and it is about priorities in general. the other thing we haven t talked about, everything is related here, is ratification of the s.t.a.r.t. treaty. yes. that is important because that is another huge, huge issue on the president s priority list. and that is another thing t ....
I guess i m not surprised because 42 republicans, all 42 republicans, members of the senate, signed a letter saying until they get tax cuts for millionaires, they won t do anything. they won t extend unemployment benefits. they won t move forward on the military, on the defense defense authorization, on issues of their national interest they won t vote for tax cuts for the middle class. i have never seen anything like this where almost a work stoppage, they are saying we won t do anything until we get our tax cuts. i m really disappointed, frankly. i imagine a majority of america, two-thirds say they favored repealing don t ask, don t tell. what s next? essentially this is doa. we keep trying. i think i have asked majority leader reid and so have others here that we stay through christmas, we stay through new years, whatever it takes. we have to take care of don t ask, don t tell, we need to take ....
Ago in lifting the ban f they don t get the 60 votes, at least for now it is dead. the don t ask, don t tell don t ask, don t tell policy will continue, either until the courts change it or there s another vote in the next congress but right now, this is a ral dramatic moment for gays serving in the united states military and we are all waiting to see if harry reid has those 60 votes that will break down republican-led filibuster. i guess, wolf, waiting for the final vote tally to see if he gets the 60 votes and then what happens next? you have been on capitol hill. if they get the 60, what is the next, i guess, procedure there on the floor? the next procedure it is part of a broader defense bill and that will presumably pass and then the policy will be repealed, the don t ask, don t tell policy will be repealed. as i pointed out you can the house has already passed that overwhelmingly earlier in the year. they are waiting for the senate, reconcile some of the aspects of ....
Bill. presumably that won t be that hard. this is the key vote right now this procedural vote to break a filibuster, it is what they call in the legislative language of washington, cloche chur. if they break this vote, right now, they get the 60 votes in the senate, then all the path forward for case to serve openly in the mill tears, nato mill tears, australia, israel around the world. this is a dramatic moment now it is one that president obama campaigned on when he was running for president. he said he wanted to lift the ban and this is a decisive moment. we will see if harry reid has the votes or not. the president said he wanted to lift the ban, i want to bring dana bash back in wolf, stand by for me for just a moment. dana, if the president wanted to repeal it and known the president has felt about don t ask, don t tell for quite some time, why doesn t president obama come in and essentially issue an executive order? ....
Putting this on the floor today is that he basically said that he didn t have time to push forward because he knows that there is other republican opposition. a lot of back-and-forth. there is going to be a lot of blame that goes around, especially from the gay rights group whose have been pushing so hard on this, blame that is going to go to harry reid for putting up a vote that we believe is probably destined to fail, and susan collins for perhaps not negotiating in a different way. so that is what we re seeing right now. i should mention, brook, that in terms of the policy, it is noteworthy that there are the 60 votes needed probably to that was my next question. 60 is the number that they need. so you were alluding to the fact that that s just about a done deal or no? well, there are 60 votes on the policy, we believe, or at least close to it. if you have close to all of the democrats, you re at 57 or 58. there are now three republican ....