The election of Republican Scott Brown as Massachusetts' new junior senator on Tuesday night sent shock waves through Washington. Politicians of on both sides of the aisle flocked to microphones to give their takes on the future of health care reform now that the Democrats no longer have the Senate 60 votes needed to avoid a filibuster. But how did we come to expect a 59-vote majority as a bad thing? We look at the history of the supermajority.

The Chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Henry Waxman, who drafted the health care bill, and Blue Dog Democrats, the fiscally conservative wing of the Democratic party, reached an agreement yesterday that would slash approximately $100 million dollars from the health care reform bill. This has enraged some progressive Democrats in the House, who want a public option included in the bill. One of those progressive House Democrats joins us from Washington, D.C.: Congressman Anthony Weiner, Democrat from New York's 9th District.