Quote:
Originally Posted by The_Waco_Kid
he didn't nominate his sister. are you happy now?
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No, I wasn't talking about 2/3rds of both houses. That is what you need to override a Presidential veto. That shouldn't be a problem since the GOP only needs a simple majority to pass legislation that Trump ought to be signing.
A filibuster occurs in the Senate and it takes 60 votes to stop it. The GOP doesn't have 60 Senators - only 52. And 11 of them refused to support Trump.
http://www.vox.com/policy-and-politi...ate-filibuster
So Trump needs to win all 52 Republicans and 8 Democrats in order to avoid major legislation being filibustered.
Repeal Obamacare? Supreme Court nominees? How does that look?
The GOP actually lost 2 seats in the Senate - shrinking from 54 to 52. Where was Trump's coattail?
https://ballotpedia.org/United_State...lections,_2016
If a less odious candidate had been nominated, the GOP might have gotten a LOT better turnout.
Not only might an alternative candidate have won the popular vote (for a change), but higher GOP turnout would have greater effect down ticket. So perhaps there would be 55 or 56 GOP Senators, another handful of House representatives, another governor or two, and a shitload more state offices.
But that didn't happen.
In 2018, the Democrats have to defend 25 Senate seats, the GOP only has to defend 8. So, the GOP has to pick up 9 Democratic seats while keeping all of the 8 it currently has.
If they had picked up 2 or 3 Senate seats in the 2016 election instead of losing 2, they would only need to pick up 5 or 6 Senate seats in 2018 to be filibuster proof.
These things make a difference.