And even when they were nominally in control of the federal government starting in 2009, Senate Republicans effectively delayed or outright blocked about 500 bills passed by the Democratic controlled House from even being voted on in the Senate, not to mention the delay tactics on important pieces of legislation such as the Affordable Care Act that was finally passed after almost a year of delays. Democrats never had a lock on 60 votes in the Senate for anything somewhat controversial, plus this ridiculously high threshold was often not even possible because of sickness (Ted Kennedy), contested election results (Al Franken), and outright douchebaggery (Joe Liebermann). And after the surprise upset of Martha Coakley by Scott Brown for Ted Kennedy's old Senate seat after his untimely death, the Democrats didn't even have a supermajority on paper to deal with the unprecedented obstruction by Mitch McConnell and his cohorts. Frankly it is a small miracle that the centrist Health Care Reform bill actually passed at all, given the complete universal opposition by all Republican Representatives and Senators, and the Senate Republicans' clear willingness to block and delay any and all legislation that they did not agree with.