Some of us are old enough to remember when the United States Senate had a vaunted reputation as the world’s greatest deliberative body. Weighty issues would be debated by senators with the security of six-year terms, resistant to the political winds of the moment, and grand compromises could be achieved. Those days, of course, are gone — put on display most tellingly Thursday when a majority of 51 votes still wasn’t enough to stop Republicans’ plans to make Americans pay exhaustingly higher health insurance premiums, just to make a political point. Courier Newsroom’s Keya Vakil gives us a summary.

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