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Originally Posted by August
Congress is controlled by the Democrats and has been for the last 2 years.
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Almost correct.
Only one part has been controlled by the Democrats.
The Democrats have a 53% majority in the House of Representatives.
The Senate is tied at 49 Republicans, 49 Democrats, and two independents.
For the purposes of determining the majority party for the purpose of assigning majority and minority positions, the rules of the Senate allow an independent to side with one side or another if they agree to caucus with the party. In this case it is Senator Lieberman.
However, this procedure of allowing an independent to caucus is not the same as a party having a majority in the Senate.
For all practical legislative purposes the Senate is tied 49-49-2
If the two independents would not agree to caucus with one of the parties, the rules of the Senate would then consider the Vice President (as the President of the Senate) and count the President of the Senate for the purposes of determining the majority party for selecting Senatorial offices. In this case, since Vice President Cheney is a Republican, the Senate would be considered to have a Republican majority.
However it is most important to know the difference between a majority party and a party with a majority. In the Senate the difference is important. This current Senate is one of the uncommon ones where one party is the majority party but does not have a majority.
This could only happen in the US.
There are many things that can be blamed on the Democratic Senators but being in the Majority for the past two years aint one of them.