60 Votes? Or is it 67 and 290?

There is a path from the wilderness…

We keep hearing it’s the Democrat’s fault, that the filibuster prevents the Senate from getting to 60 votes.  Oh, my.  The analysis is wrong, just wrong.  Here is the simple path to end the shutdown: a veto override.  It’s not that hard.  In fact it becomes a distinct possibility when the new Congress convenes in January.

In all the analysis we continually hear about the president’s demands and his insistence that Congress comply.  But frankly, the president is irrelevant in all this.  What matters are what Nancy Pelosi and Mitch McConnell can do together.  Yes, I’m talking about bipartisanship.  Here are the numbers to an override a veto:  67 votes in the Senate and 290 in the House.  So let’s assume that Mitch and Nancy craft a deal, well the math works.  If Nancy agrees it brings 235 votes in the House.  And if it’s a bill that gets Mitch to his 53 votes in the new Senate then there are more than enough members of the House that will back a deal and get us to the needed 290.  All that will leave Chuck Schumer to bring in 14 Democrats in the Senate.  I can’t see how he wouldn’t be able to do that if Nancy manages to please her 235.  So let’s be real.  Donald Trump is frankly irrelevant in this.  It can be done without him and my prediction is that it will be.

Resist

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