Why do we fucking need 60 votes for any and all damn Bills to pass the Senate?

[FrenchieCat]

Can someone explain it to me, cause I don't remember it always working this way.

Is this something relatively new? I always thought that a majority was a majority.

I realize that there were exceptions, but I didn't realize that every bill is an exception.

Color me uninformed on this one.

[Zynx]

1. The Republicans have broken all fillibuster records. Figures since they are basically the Southern

Party now.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

2. Because if they don't have 60, any Republican can filibuster

[Ichingcarpenter]

4. And the Democrats don't have the guts to make them really do it

for more than a day.

[karynnj]

7. It's not "guts" - it is that this is the way it is in the Senaet rules

[Jennicut]

3. Let the idiots filibuster, how long can they talk for anyways?

[democrattotheend]

5. Technically it's 3/5 of those present and voting

I don't know why they are saying it's a hard 60 because according to the Senate rules it's not...it's 3/5 of those present and voting, which the Democrats had tonight. At the very least, the 60 number should be lowered to be 3/5 of all Senators, and there are only 99 right now.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

6. It's actually 3/5 of those "duly chosen and sworn"

So it's 60 unless there is a vacancy. Obama's seat is vacant.

Invoking cloture usually requires a three-fifths vote of the entire Senate—“threefifths
of the Senators duly chosen and sworn.” If there are no vacancies, therefore,
60 Senators must vote to invoke cloture. In contrast, most other votes require only
a simple majority (that is, 51%) of the Senators present and voting, assuming that
those Senators constitute a quorum. In the case of a cloture vote, the key is the
number of Senators voting for cloture, not the number voting against. Failing to vote
on a cloture motion has the same effect as voting against the motion: it deprives the
motion of one of the 60 votes needed to agree to it.

http://www.senate.gov/reference/resources/pdf/RL30360.pdf

[mmonk]

8. It's a set up argument. The Republicans didn't need it to ram their garbage

down our throats when they were in charge.