When Democrats bragged that they would pass a doubling of the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour as a part of a coronavirus aid deal, they were always lying to you. Unless they were absolute morons, they knew it. So it’s safe to say that all the left-wing pearl-clutching in response to the Senate parliamentarian reminding them of the applicable rules is more performative than outraged.

The legislative filibuster requires 60 votes to pass most bills in the Senate, but the parliamentary procedure of “reconciliation” allows the Senate each year with a simple 50-vote majority to pass a single bill involving spending or the debt limit that is deficit-neutral in a 10-year time frame. Of course, there’s a catch. Among other things, something called the Byrd Rule restricts nonbudget-related policies from being passed via reconciliation. It’s why the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act didn’t outright abolish Obamacare’s individual mandate but rather struck it down to $0, and it’s why the GOP’s bills to overturn Obamacare with just 50 votes were so weak: They were simply hamstrung by the rules.