Did they or did they not get 60 votes?
Did they or did they not get 60 votes?The Democrats set the precedent that ObamaCare wasn’t subject to any filibuster when they rammed it through after Scott Brown won the seat that took away their 60th vote.
They did not. They “coulda woulda shoulda" done it before Ted Kennedy died, because that’s how many senators the Republicans didn’t have (some of them were “intependents” including, or only, Bernie Sanders (I,VT). But by the time they got done with the “Louisiana Purchase” bribing of Landrieu and the “Cornhusker Kickback” bribing of Ben Nelson, and were ready to vote for cloture (the vote that takes 60), Scott Brown had won the special election to replace Kennedy - and then they couldn’t get 60.So - no problem, right? Just “deem” the ACA to be a budget bill that can’t be filibustered, and call the vote, winning by 59-41 (or whatever it was in the end, doesn’t matter morally, other than that NO Republican voted for the bill). But, as I said, the Democrats established the precedent that the ACA is not subject to cloture. They made their bed, and the 2015 Republican majority will deem that they have to lie in it.
Of course Obama will veto repeal, and the Democrats presumably will defeat an override attempt. Then the Republicans will pass “repeal and replace” by inches, and do their best to put Obama - and every Democrat who votes against override - in the wrong. Meanwhile, the clock will keep ticking toward a SCOTUS ruling that “when we ruled that the ACA was law, we meant that it means what it says, no matter who now wishes it said something else.” And towards ever-worse effects on the economy due to ACA.