by Nicholas Beaudrot of Electoral Math
After the recent "Let Medicare be Medicare" vote, passing truly progressive legislation looks like it will be much harder than anyone thought, aside from the minimum wage increase (which will still require a bunch of revenue cuts to get past a possible Senate filibuster and Presidential veto). At the moment, turning a bill into law requires either 290 Congressmen and 67 Senators, or 219 Congressmen, 60 Senators, and George Bush's signature. This means the veto players in the Senate cluster around Pete Domenici (R-NM), Chuck Hagel (R-NE), George Voinovich (R-OH), and Ted Stevens (R-AK)—not exactly a bunch of dirty hippies—plus George W. Bush. Or, the legislative branch can ignore Bush, in which case you have to work with down-the-line partisan Congressmen like Chip Pickering (R-MS) and Jean Schmidt (R-OH), and senators like Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-TX) and Orrin Hatch (R-UT). When you have to go that deep into the opposition party to form your coalition, it gets very hard to get anything done.
This means that only the most popular and high-profile pieces of progressive policy have a chance of being enacted over the next two years. So, now might be a good time for everyone to just temper their expectations on what can be accomplished on the domestic front.
