It's almost impossible to "ram something through 51-49" in the Senate. You can only do that on reconciliation of budget bills.
What McConnell has been doing has been stopping bills, which is much, much easier. The Republican project is to try and make government so dysfunctional that people give up on it. Perpetually stopping it doing anything is a great way of going there.
Even if the Democrats could institute a nuclear option, they'd still need their right-wing Senators to vote for stuff - the likes of Joe Manchin and Diane Feinstein and Krysten Sinema. Those senators are almost as opposed to universal healthcare as Rand Paul is, although usually because the health insurance industry butters their bread rather than because they are Randian maniacs.
What McConnell has been doing has been stopping bills, which is much, much easier. The Republican project is to try and make government so dysfunctional that people give up on it. Perpetually stopping it doing anything is a great way of going there.
Even if the Democrats could institute a nuclear option, they'd still need their right-wing Senators to vote for stuff - the likes of Joe Manchin and Diane Feinstein and Krysten Sinema. Those senators are almost as opposed to universal healthcare as Rand Paul is, although usually because the health insurance industry butters their bread rather than because they are Randian maniacs.
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