Myths/Democrats had a supermajority for two years

seedling article
This article is incomplete. It might be useful as a reference, but avoid offering it as a definitive presentation. I'm still collecting facts for this page... it was a complex situation.

Myth: The Democrats had a supermajority in both houses of Congress for two years.

Myth

Examples

• "But in fairness, the first two years, [Obama] had a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate and a big majority in the House." — Chris Wallace, Fox News
• "For two years, [Obama] had complete, unadulterated control of the federal government, a 60 seat majority in the Senate, an 60 plus seat majority in the House. He got every – literally every – piece of legislation he wanted to try and quote turn around the economy..." — Representative Aaron Schock (R-IL)

Reality

Timeline

Date	Event	House	Senate
2009-01-03	111th US Congress officially convenes, with two Democratic seats unfilled: Al Franken's victory over Norm Coleman is in dispute the seat formerly filled by Barack Obama is awaiting an appointed successor		D:58
2009-01-15	Roland Burris is sworn in to fill Obama's seat		D:59
2009-04-28	Senator Arlen Specter switches from Republican to Democrat: Dem supermajority begins		D:60
2009-06-30	Franken is sworn in		D:61
2009-09-24	An interim successor to the recently-deceased Democratic Senator Edward Kennedy is appointed		D:61
2010-02-04	Republican Scott Brown joins the Senate after a special election, replacing Democrat Paul G. Kirk: Dem supermajority ends		D:59

The Democrats only had a supermajority from April 28 through February 4 – but even that was marred by the fact that Ted Kennedy was terminally ill with a brain tumor, and could not be counted on for votes. During the technical supermajority period, he missed all but four votes.

The Dems had 61 Senators from June 30 through February 4, so Kennedy's vote wouldn't have been crucial. We'll be charitable and count those four votes as four days on which there was a supermajority, even though Kennedy's vote could not be counted on and the Dems would therefore have to spend time trying to drum up a few Republican votes.

• 4/28 - 6/29: 4 days (Kennedy unreliable)
• 6/30 - 2/4: (how many days is that? how many working days?)

To add to the Dems' troubles, though, Democratic Senatory Robert Byrd was also terminally ill. During the 61-vote stretch (60 without Kennedy) of 6/30-2/4, Byrd missed most of his votes as well, leaving the Dems with only 59 reliable votes at most.