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[quote=jsteele][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][b]With unfettered discretion for TWO YEARS[/b] (i.e., Obama plus majority democrats in the house and senate), Obama should have gotten a hell of a lot done.

Unfettered discretion!  He could have passed anything!

Rather than just vacationing and pointing fingers, which he is still doing 4 years into it.  [/quote]

More like 6 months.  But let's not garble up our message with FACTS!  That's like poison to Republicans.[/quote]

Please explain 6 months...facts please.[/quote]

Here are the facts:

- When the 111th Congress convened in January 2009, Democrats held 56 Senate seats. Two independents that caucused with the Democrats gave the party 58 Senate votes. Republicans held 41 seats. One seat was empty because the election outcome in Minnesota was tied up in court. 60 votes are necessary to overcome filibusters. Republicans immediately engaged in unprecedented use of the filibuster in order to prevent even routine Senate actions.

- On April 30, Arlen Specter switched from the Republican to Democratic Party, giving Democrats 59 votes.

- Al Franken was finally sworn in on July 7, 2009, giving the Democrats 60 votes.

- However, by the time Franken was sworn in, Ted Kennedy had become too sick to attend the Senate. He had not voted since April 2009. So, the Democrats only had 59 actual votes and could not break Republican filibusters which were continuing at a record pace. Kennedy died on August 25, leaving the seat vacant until September 25 when Paul Kirk was sworn in. The Democrats then had 60 votes.

- Scott Brown won the special election to replace Kennedy and was seated on Feb. 4, 2010.

So, the only period for which Democrats had enough votes to invoke cloture was from September 25, 2009 to February 4, 2010, or about 4 months. The Senate was not in session for more than 2 of those months. Because one of the votes upon which the Democrats relied was Joe Lieberman, they were always held hostage by him. He had famously not supported Obama during the 2008 election and appears to have enjoyed being an obstacle to the President.

By the time the Democrats had a filibuster-proof majority, most of the major legislative battles of the year were over. The idea that Obama had two years of "unfettered discretion" simply ignores reality. Anyone who discusses Obama's ability to pass legislation without taking into account the unprecedented use of the filibuster by the Republicans is either unfair or uninformed. [/quote]

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