senate

Democratic leadership in the Senate is scrambling for the votes they need to pass the stimulus package. Why, you wonder, are they searching when they have a 58-41 majority?

Because the Senate is a deeply undemocratic body in which individual Senators hold great power to hold legislation up - and the magic number to overcome that is a 3/5 majority, that is 60 votes.

Now, this 3/5 supermajority isn't in the Constitution. It's in the Senate rules, written by the Senate, for the Senate. So why doesn't the Senate change the rules to prevent individual Senators from holding the nation's business hostage? Because many - most, maybe ALL - of the Senators want to retain that precious ability for themselves. Pure selfishness.