Check out this headline from the AP:
Democrats block GOP bid to extend DC vouchers
Hmmm – really sounds like some parliamentary move to stop the vote, like a filibuster or something. But read on:
The Senate voted 50-39 along mostly party lines to reject a bid by Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign to extend the program beyond the 2009-2010 school year. That leaves in place a provision contained in a huge spending bill that requires Congress and the Washington, D.C. government to re-approve the program. Republicans say that is likely to kill it.
Ahhh so the measure failed by a standard vote, in which they didn’t get a majority.
Now if this was a Democratic bill that didn’t make it through, the headline would read more like “Democrats fail to get enough votes to pass …..”, even if they only have 59 votes.
So when it’s a filibuster, then it’s “not enough votes”, but when a measure just fails then it is “blocked”. Yeah that makes sense.