Let’s keep this simple. Until the cloture rule came along, a handful of Senators could postpone a floor vote on a bill indefinitely, a.k.a. a “filibuster.”
Dem Senators used this all the time to stifle Civil Rights legislation.
With the advent of cloture, if 3/5ths of the Senate vote to stop debate - debate stops. So 60 is the magic number to stop debate.
Once debate is stopped, the bill can go to the floor for a vote - where only a simple majority is required, or 51 votes.
There are 60 votes in Harry Reid’s pocket, so when debate is killed passage of the bill is a foregone conclusion. That’s why the Freeper who said cloture is meaningless is wrong. Well, he’s right in the sense that it does not actually represent passage of the bill, but the net affect is that it does.
If they can get 60 votes for cloture, they will certainly get 51 for passage.
Now Mary from Louisiana can vote in favor of cloture, but vote against the bill when it comes to the floor. In less enlightened times, she could tell her constituency with a straight face that she voted against the bill - which would technically be true.
But by voting FOR cloture, she was really voting for its passage.
Dirty Harry does NOT have 60 votes in his pocket for cloture to END debate, some time in December.
EVERYONE is confusing the vote TODAY with the REAL cloture vote.
Today's vote is MEANINGLESS. Maybe an exaggeration, but compared to the final cloture vote, it is relatively meaningless.