Do folks not remember the impact of Lieberman on the Affordable Care Act?
The person with the 60th vote has a ton of policy influence. This is why we don't have a public option, or at least an awfully public example of how "having 60 votes" during that short window didn't get much done.
Not that I want to apologize for the democrats or anything, I just agree that no one has had a meaningful 60-vote majority in my lifetime.
Young people genuinely may not remember. Being born in 2003, I was 7 years old when the Affordable Care Act was passed, and I wasn't paying much attention to politics. I didn't keep much track until shortly before the 2016 presidential election, although I picked up bits and pieces before then. It's only because I read about politics online that I know about Lieberman's impact on the ACA. Someone else said they were born in 2001; that would have made them 9 years old in 2010.
Although, because little kids nowadays have access to smartphones with social media, I suspect that 7 and 9 year olds are now paying more attention to politics than they used to.
The person with the 60th vote has a ton of policy influence. This is why we don't have a public option, or at least an awfully public example of how "having 60 votes" during that short window didn't get much done.
Not that I want to apologize for the democrats or anything, I just agree that no one has had a meaningful 60-vote majority in my lifetime.