Sheldon Whitehouse: 'There is a plan, and this is just part of it.'

[BumRushDaShow]

43. Yes

and during that time, the combo of Presidents and supportive Congresses were apparently not enough to get it done, and it was tried. But as long as that 60 vote threshold for cloture is there in the Senate, then the hurdle is very high.

After Arlen Specter switched to the Democratic party in April 2009 and Al Franken was finally sworn in July 2009, we briefly had 60 votes until early January 2010, when the month before, we lost a Senate seat to Scott Brown in a special election in MA to replace Ted Kennedy who had died over the summer (and had an appointed-replacement (D) in his seat temporarily), and that was that.

Simple math.