They very briefly had 60 votes, for about 4-5 months total, July-Aug 2009 and again in Sept-February 2010. They started with 55 seats in January 2009. As someon

They very briefly had 60 votes, for about 4-5 months total, July-Aug 2009 and again in Sept-February 2010. They started with 55 seats in January 2009. As someone else mentioned, one of those was Joe Lieberman who was one of the most conservative of approximately 12 "blue dog" democrats in the senate. "Blue dog" democrats are were/are basically very centrist/moderate to the point that you could consider some of them moderate or even right leaning republicans. Fast forward and Arlen Specter, a fairly moderate republican.. actually arguably more liberal than Lieberman, switched parties in April 28, 2009 and gave the democrats +1 (to 57 +2 independents who caucus with democrats). Al Franken didn't get seated until about 8 months after he was elected due to it being contested with lawsuits. And then Ted Kennedy died. Again then there was always that issue that there were about 12 democrats in the Senate that called themselves "blue dog" democrats It was during time when they did have 60 seats that they passed Healthcare reform, known as Obamacare. It was the best reform they could do to get everyone in the democratic party to sign on, with the moderates blocking a public option. The rollback of which (which includes medicaid expansion) has (arguably) helped cause the recent losses for republicans seen in Louisiana and Kentucky. See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_United_States_Congress#Party_summary https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/111th_United_States_Congress#P... Senate: April 30, 2009 57 + 2 independent (Specter) July 7, 2009 58 + 2 independent (Kennedy in the Senate still, but at home sick, as he had been for sometime) August 25, 2009 57 + 2 independent (Kennedy died) September 25, 2009 58 + 2 independent (Kennedy's Replacement, seated - Paul G. Kirk (D)) February 4, 2010 57 + 2 independent (Paul G. Kirk, a Democrat was defeated in a special election, in Massachusetts.. you know that same state where Elizabeth Warren is a sitting Senator) So considering all that, especially that the democrats lost a seat in an election in Massachusetts, you better believe the public sentiment was against democrats at the time and those that were moderates didn't want to do sign onto anything that would have them lose their seat in a purple-ish state. I found a slightly more in depth commentary on this here: https://www.beaconjournal.com/article/20120909/NEWS/309099447 https://www.beaconjournal.com/article/20120909/NEWS/30909944...