I THOUGHT ABOUT DOING THIS YESTERDAY...

(h/t TP)

but two other people saved me the time:

The measure actually had support from 54 senators. But it takes 60 to break a filibuster. In other words, supporters had a very clear majority. They just didn't have what it takes to overcome obstruction by the minority.

And the supporters' majority was even bigger than it seems. If you assume, for sake of argument, each senator represents half of his or her state’s population, then senators voting for the bill represented about 194 million people, while the senators voting against the bill represented about 118 million people. That’s getting close to a two-thirds majority in favor of the measure.