While the Senate was Republican controlled (ie: greater than 50%), they didn't have the overall numbers necessary to pass the bill. Is it 2/3? Sorry, my civics history is a bit foggy!
You are correct. A bill needs 2/3 or the vote in both houses to pass, then it has to be signed by the president. If he veto's the bill, it then needs 3/4 of the vote form both houses to pass.
This is a problem most Americans seem to be unaware of. Just because one side has technical controll of congress, doesn't mean they have full control. Since 90's when the Republicans took controll of congress, to present day where Democrats posses the majority, neither side has had enough of their people in to make that much of a difference...there have been several years where the difference was only a couple people on one side or the other...hard to get 2/3 of the vote that way, and forget about 3/4.
The real problem is the American peoples inability to understand how our system works. I've heard many people say they don't want either side to have too much power...they like the fact that even though one side has a majority that it's still close...they often even say they like it when the house is controlled by one part and the White House by another...tell me how this makes sense? How is anything ever supposed to really get done?
The tree-huggers are to blame for the fact that foreign countries will be drilling in the Gulf of Mexico before we will. And which side caters to the hippies that just won't die? The Dems.
Don't get me wrong, both sides are just as full of different colored shit, but you can't throw this into any lap but the Liberals.
Can't argue with this at all. If it were not for this, America would have been self-sufficient a long, long time ago.