General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Since Obama has this in the bag, I was thinking about 2016... [View all]Blue Belle
(5,912 posts)The meme that the Democrats had control of the House and Senate is a myth and heres why: people keep forgetting that you need 60 to have a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
January 20, 2009 Edward Kennedy suffered a seizure during Barack Obama's inaugural luncheon, and his health forced him to retreat to Massachusetts. Also, Senator Al Franken of Minnesota had not been seated because the previous Senator, Norm Coleman challenged the election results. So on his inauguration Obama had 57 elected Democratic Senators
55 Democrats and 2 Independents.
April 28, 2009 Arlan Specter switches parties from Republican to Democratic. This gives the Democrats 58
56 seated Democrats, 2 Independents. Al Franken still hasnt been sworn in and Kennedy is sick. Still no 60 member majority.
May 15, 2009 Senator Robert Byrd is admitted to the hospital reducing the number of Democratic votes to 57
55 Democrats, 2 Independents.
July 7, 2009 Senator Al Franken is sworn in bringing the Democratic votes back up to 58
56 sitting Democrats, 2 Independents. No Senator Kennedy or Byrd due to illness.
July 21, 2009 Senator Byrd Returns to the Senate making the count 59 seats Still no Kennedy.
August 25, 2009 Senator Kennedy dies and the seat remains vacant until
September 24, 2009 Interim Senator Paul Kirk is sworn in to fill Kennedys seat bringing the total Democratic votes to a filibuster proof majority of 60.
So really the Democrats only had 4 months of a majority in the Senate not 2 years (even less when you consider that Senator Lieberman sided with the Republicans most of the time). Because they didnt have a majority, nothing could be automatically pushed through the Senate and concessions had to be made on the healthcare legislation in order for the bill to pass.