Party sticks to its guns on healthcare and says it’s willing to hold out – much to the delight of its progressive supporters
When he sat down to talk about the US government shutdown with reporters from a closely read political newsletter this week, Chuck Schumer sounded as if he was relishing his standoff with the Republicans.
“Every day gets better for us,” he told Punchbowl News. As the shutdown got under way, Schumer explained, the Republican part believed that Democrats would quickly fold and vote to reopen the government, but instead they had stuck to their guns for a week and a half, demanding an array of concessions on healthcare and other issues.
Outrage followed from Republicans, who printed out the Senate minority leader’s remark on posters and condemned it before press conferences. The shutdown has prompted federal agencies to close or curtail operations nationwide, and forced hundreds of thousands of employees to stay home without immediate pay. Schumer, Republicans argued, was being callous.
Obviously it requires a larger majority, otherwise they wouldn’t be in this situation. I think it requires 60%
I wouldn’t say “obviously” because I wouldn’t put it past the GOP to just have some refuse to vote along just to blame their opponents for the fallout, especially when they wanted that fallout in the first place.
The majority on this vote is also not the whole story. A reason that R needs a larger majority is because of the filibuster rules allowing D to block the vote. R currently has enough power to remover the filibuster rules and force a vote they can win on majority. But both parties rely on filibuster for decades to block legislation without having to justify their reasons.
https://govfacts.org/analysis/why-the-minority-party-can-force-a-government-shutdown/
TL;DR the role of the Senate is to prevent democracy.