Sometimes, I think Congress isn't getting any work done on purpose.

The healthcare debate has dragged on for the better part of a year because, according to Tom Harkin, Democrats "don't have the votes" to pass a bill. Whether they've had a majority or the even better supermajority, the lack of votes defense has been used to excuse inaction for months.

(Which makes me think I should start using it in my own life. "It's time to do laundry." "Nah, I don't have the votes, I'll do it later.")

Apparently, we can't do anything in this country unless at least 60 mostly white, mostly male senators feel the same way about it. Unless, of course, the party in power decides to use the perfectly legitimate, yet cheap Parliamentary Procedure of Doom known as Reconciliation.

Cue the ominous music.

Reconciliation allows the majority party to pass a bill through the Senate with a simple majority instead, which of course means it's getting forced on the American people the way a new president or elected representative is, or how George W. Bush's tax cuts were shoved down our throats in the last administration.

Totally not fair, dude, my generation would say. That's, like, not most of most of the people, or something.

Of course, never misunderestimate the power of one Senator to throw a wrench in the works to get his way.

Two weeks ago, Kentucky Republican Jim Bunning stalled an extension of unemployment benefits for the better part of a week because he didn't feel Congress had a plan for reducing the deficit. He kept the Senate up past its bedtime on a Thursday night, and when another Senator told him to stop holding up the show, he said, "Tough [insert excretory reference here]."

As thousands of unemployed Americans neared losing their benefits in an economy with 10 percent the citizens out of work, Bunning then added that his objection came with grave personal sacrifice.

He missed the Kentucky-South Carolina mens' basketball game.