They had 60 Senate seats but not 60 votes. For every vote you still need 60 votes to prevent a filibuster regardless of whether your party has the majority of s

They had 60 Senate seats but not 60 votes. For every vote you still need 60 votes to prevent a filibuster regardless of whether your party has the majority of seats. This is why the public option (and single payer) was killed in the ACA. They didn't have the 60 votes to override a filibuster (Lieberman was, I believe, the main holdout)