forwd during this day. mr. mcconnell: mr. president? the presiding officer: the minority leader. the republicaneader. mr. mcconnell: mr. president, the fact of the matr is that the only way we're going to get an agreement before tuesday is to have an agreement with the president of the united states. the only person in america of the 307 million of us who can sign something into law. and i'm more optimistic than my friend, the majority leader. we both talked to the president today. we talked to the vice president several times. i think we've got a chance of getting the. what i think is not helpful is the process we're going through here on the senate floor having a -- show votes over live quorums, having a reluctance on the part of the majority to have a vote on a measure they favor, which we'v we've been prepared o vote on since last night.