“I’m not going to waste any more time of the American people,” Mr. Reid said.

But it was the unusual use of video clips that was most striking about the Democrats’ aggressive posture. First they showed Mr. McConnell repeatedly denouncing the legislation, saying it would encourage, rather than prevent, future taxpayer-financed bailouts of big banks. Both sides agree the bill is intended to end bailouts.

“This bill not only allows for taxpayer-funded bailouts of Wall Street banks, it institutionalizes them,” Mr. McConnell says on the video in a speech on the Senate floor. In another clip, Mr. McConnell says, “It provides for an endless taxpayer bailout of Wall Street banks.”

Senator Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, the No. 2 Democrat, accused Mr. McConnell of ignoring the legislative text.

“If you listen to this comment by the minority leader of the United States Senate you wonder if he has read the bill, particularly if he has read the section between pages 110 and 295, which is entitled ‘Orderly Liquidation Authority,’ ” Mr. Durbin said.

“Liquidation is the end of the bank,” Mr. Durbin said, “not a bailout that it could continue in business. It describes all the steps that would be taken under the bill to liquidate the bank. The management team is fired. The shareholders are wiped out. The firm’s assets are sold off to pay any firm debts. Once the money is gone, the creditors are wiped out. The taxpayers don’t pay for any part of this, and at the end of it, the company is gone. There is nothing to bail out.”

Then, the Democrats showed clips of the No. 2 Republican, Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, saying the legislation would interfere with auto dealers, dentists or optometrists who allow their customers to pay off bills over time.

“Senator Kyl says that the bill would regulate your dentist or your optometrist or your butcher if they let you pay over time — once again, not true,” Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, said.