And yet, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer claims it is.

“Channeling growing House Democratic anger at Senate intransigence, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) on Tuesday declared the process in the opposite chamber “broken” and said it “cannot stand.”
“It’s one thing to have a considered process. It’s another thing to have a broken process,” Hoyer said in a speech at the National Press Club. “Many of us believe the Senate process is broken, and when I say ‘many of us,’ I speak for many Members of the United States Senate as well.”

Obviously, Hoyer is upset that Democrats in the Senate have now lost their 60-vote supermajority after the victory of Scott Brown in Massachusetts.

Hoyer, however, is fundamentally missing the point of why we have both a House and a Senate. As a friend of mine recently explained to me:

The House is designed for offense and the Senate is designed for defense. I’m sorry if they can’t just ram your health care bill through the Senate, but for the No. 2 Democrat in the House to call the process “broken” is a little scary. It’s consistent with Barney Frank’s call to eliminate the filibuster in the Senate. What it really shows is that these guys want ultimate power and anything that slows them down even a little is proof positive that the whole system needs to be changed.
For the record, I also thought it was a reckless idea when the Republicans considered the “nuclear option” for confirming judges – essentially a way to eliminate the filibuster.

I agree. Actually, Hoyer should get used to this Senate “intransigence,” because I am seeing more roadblocks in his future.