I’ve had the impression that nearly every piece of legislation over this last year has required 60 votes (Every democrat before they recently lost their supermajority). That is NOT how the senate is supposed to work.
Then we’ll have republican agents complaining that things didn’t get done (a lie, talking point) and try to lay the blame at the doorstep of the white house, oddly enough. They’ll assume that the public hasn’t been paying ANY attention, and they’ll largely be correct.
Ever wonder why republicans simply make shit up?
Because the public lets them get away with it.
Back to the point of this post, the use of the filibuster has more than doubled in the last year.
Anyone claiming that democrats locked out Bush like the republican party is trying to do to Obama has their head squarely up their own ass.
After all, bush passed his 1.3 trillion tax cut for the wealthy (note for the uninformed – that isn’t the $500 check bush handed you, that was his attempt at a stimulus package, which has been shown to be ineffective), got most of congress to back his warmongering and passed medicare part D (more than half a trillion dollars and again, ineffective). Albeit the tax cut and medicare part D required the outlandish (repubs then: reconciliation good, repubs now: reconciliation bad) use of reconciliation.