Radical Rationalist

Anyone who paid attention in high school civics class knows it takes a majority to pass a bill.  In the Senate, that means 51.  In today’s world, though, the operative number is 60.  60 represents the mythical supermajority, the three-fifths of the Senate needed to break a filibuster, but has become the de facto definition of a majority:

• The New York Times:

Republicans such as Sens. Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins of Maine and Chuck Grassley of Iowa have supported other forms of an RES voted by the Senate in 2005 and 2007. However, the RES in 2005 only had a target of 10 percent by 2020 and the 2007 provision — 15 percent by 2020 — was lumped together with an objectionable energy tax provision, both of which were stripped of the energy bill in order to pass. The bill with the RES title and tax provisions originally failed to reach the 60-vote threshold by a vote of 53-42.

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