Glenn Beck: Who Cares! Dem Supermajority Was Useless Anyway

Your Moment Of Glenn

by Glynnis MacNicol | 10:24 am, January 29th, 2010

» 19 comments

Glenn Beck made a good point on last night’s show about the state of Obama’s majority in Congress, how the Dem supermajority (also known as the Republicans “under my Grandma’s sink”) has been useless thus far, and the tyranny of the filibuster, and he did it with magnets. A little bit like Schoolhouse Rock (Glennhouse Rock?) but without the catchy tune. The point in short (and Beck is not the first to make this) is that the Dems currently have a majority in both the House and the Senate — what they lost with the Scott Brown election last week was a supermajority, which in a perfect world would have enabled them to not only beat a filibuster, but pass anything they wanted. Something which obviously did not happen. You may recall this from Obama’s State of the Union the other night:

And if the Republican leadership is going to insist that 60 votes in the Senate are required to do any business at all in this town — a supermajority — then the responsibility to govern is now yours as well.

Says Beck: “Let me bring a little something into the conversation I like to call logic and math.” Using blue and red magnets Beck illustrates that newcomer Scott Brown may have reduced the Dem Senate majority to 59 but he is still a lonely red dot in a sea of blue (of course, now any member of the GOP can theoretically filibuster thanks to Brown). The real point is, that up until now, the Dems have had that super majority and yet nothing has been passed. Says Beck: “How have the Republicans held the President’s agenda up when they’re under my Grandma’s sink?” They didn’t, the real fight was inside the Democratic party. Video, complete with colored magnets below.

Glenn Beck, Glennhouse Rock, SOTU, Your Moment of Glenn

sarainitaly

This video was so funny! I love the under my grandma’s sink bit.

Beck is right. I have been saying this for a year. The dems for DECADES have been wanting, craving, campainging on health care reform. They finally had the perfect storm – control of WH, Senate and House, and they couldn’t get it done. Their jobs should have been a small price to pay, if they really truly believed it is/was the right thing to do. They were more concerned with the next election, and keeping their own cushy health care, then to get together and pass universal health care, or whatever they wanted. They keep blaming Repubs and tea partiers. They had it within their grasp, and they woosied out. They want Repubs on board because they don’t want to take responsibility for something that can be a massive nightmare?

The problem from the beginning, IMHO, is that Obama had a crappy plan to begin with, he snubbed ideas from McCain and Hillary, and he left it up to other people to *handle*. He didn’t seem to care, or to want to get involved, or to know what to do. He turned it over to Pelosi, who ran around like a hyperactive kid in a candy store.

It should have been bi-partisan in the planning stages, it should have been on c-span, it should have had things like tort reform, and no back door deals with Pharma, etc. They were too concerned with their jobs, and ticking off their big donors like lawyers, unions and the HC industry.

Thanks for posting this. It was a classic.
ImNotBlue

They had the supermajority… the only thing they lacked was support from the people.

And as Joe Klein showed us earlier this week, they Democrats aren’t real fond of them either.
Moderate

The Obama administration’s deal with labor unions on taxing high-value health insurance plans was the straw that had Independents saying the Obamacare plan was getting far too ridiculous. The optimal way to pay for health-care reform would have been to eliminate the tax-free treatment of employer-provided health care.
m

> They finally had the perfect storm – control of WH, Senate and House, and they couldn’t get it done.

The Bush Administration did too back in 2004. You know what we got? The least active Congress in modern history. Couldn’t even privatize Social Security, something the Republicans consider a bigger priority than fixing our broken health care system.

Health care is basically a done deal as far as I am concerned. Only 50 Dem Senators need to agree and we’ve got it as law.
ImNotBlue

m says:
January 29, 2010 at 11:52 am

Health care is basically a done deal as far as I am concerned. Only 50 Dem Senators need to agree and we’ve got it as law.

As far as you’re concerned? Well, okay then. Too bad that’s not even close to reality.

But about the HC bill… what part of it do you really like? Out of curiosity.
Ted

Glenn Beck and logic? Oil and water anyone?
puck30

‘Glennhouse Rock’! Glynnis that’s too funny!

I started to dvr his show to watch when I get home. I’m telling my friends it’s like an old Social Studies class.

‘Logic and Math’. You can use that on both sides. Heck, you can use that in everyday life.

The supermajority was pretty useless this time around because the Dems didn’t need a Republican to peel off. All eyes were on the Dems where as if they had one Republican. All eyes would have been on the one Republican.

How much stuff could have been passed if the Democrats could have used Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, John McCain etc. as cover? Dems could have used the old, “we could not have got this done with out help of…”. And ‘right wing radio’ would have been going nuts, screaming at…..
JimW

Oh, Ted, you’re back! Yes! You really should actually read what Sara said: “It should have been bi-partisan in the planning stages, it should have been on c-span, it should have had things like tort reform, and no back door deals with Pharma, etc.” She and Beck make sense, no?
m

This bill pretty much is a centrist bill. If Democrats were going to pass a Democratic bill, it would’ve been universal health care. But it’s not. It’s not even close. This is the ultimate Moderate bill on the liberal-to-conservative ideological scale.
timzank

Bottom line is, repubs didn’t block a damn thing. If you want or wanted healthcare/health insurance reform and don’t get it, you sure as hell can’t republicans, you can blame democrats. THAT is simple math.
Ted

Jim W – It seems you and GB use the same “logic.”
writer

Okay, if Beck isn’t being logical, explain it to us. How is it that the Dems control the WH and the senate and the house, yet it’s the Republicans who held everything up?
m

It’s called the Senate:
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/images/cloture-stats-chart2.jpg
writer

Bottom line: Dems have the numbers to do anything they want. No one else to blame.
Ben Linus

@ Ted
What the hell kind of “logic” do you use? The Democrats had the power to do anything and didn’t.
Ted

Ben -It’s just that as a general rule of thumb anytime I hear Glenn Beck use words like logic or facts I involuntarily laugh…for a long time. He is an entertainer so mission accomplished…bad choice of words.
http://trickletown.vox.com/ Trickletown

Hey, do y’all remember back when the Dems had a SuperMajority and didn’t get anything accomplished? I do!
disgusted

PROMISES, Promises, promises!.. What is LEFT?
rmbltmbl

Credit where credit is due, Glynnis.. thank you for finally treating Beck like Mediaite treats the Daily show. Progress is a funny thing.