60 votes for passage of any legislation. a big bill to combat china is also stalled. criminal justice reform, also stalled. legislating is hard. i don t want to give a sense that it s easy. it s very difficult and made even more difficult by the fact that it s a 50/50 senate and there s a five or six-seat majority in the house of representatives. that s all very difficult. it seems to me, and i hear this all the time up here on capitol hill, the president needs to govern as if he has 50 seats in the senate and a slim majority in the house. and he can t govern and this is not me saying it, this is what members of congress are saying, he can t govern with 50 seats in the senate, he has the slimmest majority with two senate democrats who are unwilling to bend to his entreaties on a whole host of issues. it s not too late for him to get victories on these issues. i have to imagine there would be
legislative year, and it was. the american rescue plan, infrastructure, all of these big things, bbb which hasn t passed. but we re going to get into 2022 now, an election year, and whatever the bbb becomes will take a couple of weeks at least, more likely eight weeks, to get done. and then there s other priorities, there s a government funding fight in there, there s this big bill to combat china. this is going to be a busy at least first quarter, probably first half of 2022 on the legislative front. that s if everybody doesn t get covid and they have to shut down. right. mitch mcconnell was on fox news making a plea for joe manchin. let s play that. i admire what joe manchin did. i don t expect them to give up, i think they ll keep coming back to him. i ve suggested a good solution to his problem would be to come across the aisle and join us, where he would be treated with respect. he s offering him a high