Word: votes
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...Congress in 1994 derailed efforts to tackle the issue nationally until 2008; as the percentage of uninsured Americans continues to increase, the issue continues to become more pressing every single day. In addition, the perceived failure of the Democratic party to enact their agenda, even with a 59-vote majority, will create the impression that it is ineffectual and dogmatic; this image would cost them dearly in this year’s midterm elections. Democratic leaders must thus continue the work that has already been done...
...Democrats have regarded Brown’s election as akin to a political and moral apocalypse and have proposed several legislative ploys to pass the current version of the bill. We applaud Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s pledge to seat Senator-elect Brown before holding a vote on health care. Any technical exploitation of the limbo after the election would come across as manipulative and undemocratic...
...cannot be denied that the central tenets of the bill are controversial and politically-divisive; the near-perfect party-line vote late last year demonstrated that Republicans stiffly oppose the current, Democrat-dominated version of the bill. The politically expedient action to take now is to remove the provisions that make the bill most intolerable to Republicans in hopes that some middle ground can be reached. While neither party will be completely satisfied with the final product, the important thing is that it will stand the greatest chance of codification and will be most palatable to the general public while...
Last week, they lost their sixtieth vote in the Senate to Massachusetts Senator-elect Scott Brown. But Brown’s victory is only the latest bruise. Three weeks ago, North Dakota Senator Byron Dorgan and Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd announced their retirements. And last month, Alabama Congressman Parker Griffith switched parties...
...UCLA political scientist Barbara Sinclair has documented, only eight percent of bills deemed “legislation to watch” by Congressional Quarterly faced filibusters or filibuster threats in the 1960s. For example, when Lyndon Johnson was counting votes for Medicare in 1965, he assumed that a majority vote would pass and did not even consider having to break a filibuster. By contrast, in the 2000s, 70 percent of “legislation to watch” faced a 60-vote requirement...