Gotta check something fast...

[woodsprite]

Is this true? I'm trying to answer someone who fussed at me about how all the things passed thru Congress are because the Dems have control. I wanted to reply to her, but wanted to check my answer to make sure I understand it.

--------

"The Liberal Dems in Congress need to either talk all the DLC Dems or enough
Repubs into voting with them inorder to pass something they favor. Even
more if they want it to be veto-proof. In the Senate, if all the DLC Dems
and the Liberal Dems vote as a block, we still need Lieberman to put us
over the 50/50 mark. If Lieberman abstains or enough abstain from both
sides to make it a 50/50 split and they can't break the tie, Dick Cheney
gets called in to break it. So the Repubs still make the call.

So, while the Dems technically DO have control of both the House and
Senate, in the Senate it is by the skin of our teeth and we need some
repubs to side with us to get anything done. With the large number of DLC
Dems, that doesn't happen often. In the House, it is still a slim margin,
but it is larger."

[sinkingfeeling]

1. The Senate rules require 60 votes to end debate and vote on legislation. The Republicans these past

two years have refused to allow votes on more pieces of legislation than in any other Congress.

[TheWraith]

2. An added note about the Senate.

In the Senate, to shut down a filibuster you need 60 votes, so in effect the Republicans can block anything that doesn't have the support of at least 9 of their people, even if every Democrat plus Lieberman is lined up behind it.

[lapfog_1]

3. Actually worse than that.

In the Senate, nothing passes (these days) without 60+ votes. That is the level needed to break a filibuster (it's a filibuster in name only, no senators bother with actually holding the floor for hours and hours).

The repukes have filibustered in the Senate a record number of times (and breaking the previous record by a huge margin)...

Here is a good reference on this:

http://www.alternet.org/election08/88329/abuse_of_the_filibuster:_republicans_play_dirty_%27block_and_blame%27_game/