Paul Coverdell: “I think a better question is, where did it begin? Let us remember that this is the fourth filibuster. This all comes…”

“I think a better question is, where did it begin? Let us remember that this is the fourth filibuster. This all comes from a proposal that was passed by the Senate with 59 votes--overwhelmingly--and the President of the United States told us he would veto the entire Nation's tax relief if that line stayed in the bill. So that is where we began--the Senate adopting a proposal, the House adopting a proposal, and the administration saying, no way, no deal, no how. It all goes down. So we brought it back as a freestanding proposal. That was filibustered. Then we tried to move to the bill in this sitting of the Congress, and that was filibustered. And we have now had a cloture vote to bring it to an end. We have had three separate suggestions to try to keep it within the realm of germaneness. But I think one thing that has not been really talked about here today is that, yes, there is a concern that this is just another filibuster. There is no end to it. If you look at the empirical evidence, everything we have seen is designed not to modify, but to kill or to ``poison pill'' this thing.”