A Message From Congressman Anthony Weiner(0)
The focus in this health care debate has been the number 60. Why? Because that’s the number of votes a health care proposal needs to thwart a filibuster on the Senate floor. According to Senate rules, a single person can defeat a bill because it takes more than a simple majority of 51 senators to defeat a filibuster.
The threat of a filibuster is what made the original Senate bill weaker than what we passed in the House. And the continuing threat of a filibuster is getting in the way of real progress now.
There are 57 Democrats in the Senate, to go along with 256 Democrats in the House, and, of course, a Democratic President.
The math on health care should be simple. If a majority wants real reform, a simple abuse of Senate rules shouldn’t stand in the way. And if we can’t change the rules, then it’s time to get tough. Let a senator who wants to stand in the way of reform filibuster in front of the entire country.
The questions we should be asking is not whether we need to reform health care. It’s why we should need 60 votes to do it.
Anthony