It's not 51-49, it's 49-48-3.

[Jeebo]

There will be 49 Republicans, 48 Democrats and three independents (Sinema, Bernie, Angus King). So who's going to be in the majority in the Senate?

-- Ron

[Elessar Zappa]

1. As long as the independents keep caucusing

with us then Dems have the majority.

[JohnSJ]

3. and they all made it clear they will.

[Elessar Zappa]

4. Yep.

[Polybius]

8. One didn't make it too clear

While Sanders and King formally caucus with Democrats, Sinema declined to explicitly say that she would do the same. She did note, however, that she expects to keep her committee assignments – a signal that she doesn’t plan to upend the Senate composition, since Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer controls committee rosters for Democrats. “When I come to work each day, it’ll be the same,” Sinema said. “I’m going to still come to work and hopefully serve on the same committees I’ve been serving on and continue to work well with my colleagues at both political parties.”

It would have been nice if she hadn't declined to say it. Of course, you're still right that she will almost certainly still do so.

[JohnSJ]

11. She made it clear. She said she would not caucus with the republicans, and would keep her

Committee assignments

There is only one way for that to happen

[Polybius]

13. What I meant is that she couldn't just say "Yes, I'll caucus with Democrats"

She just had to decline to answer it that way. Yes, keeping committee assignments is the exact same thing. I was just talking about her wording. Sorry, she just aggravates me. Your post was correct.

[JohnSJ]

14. That's her, a reason why she isn't popular among Democrats

[JohnSJ]

2. The 3 independents are caucusing with the DEMOCRATS. Therefore the Democrats have the majority

[DarthDem]

5. The Democrats. No Matter What.

Relax.

[GreenWave]

6. Why it's almost a coalition!

[Beachnutt]

7. We know Bernie and Angus vote with

the Democratic party so there's that.

[grantcart]

9. It's 50-49-¶ππ

[bigtree]

10. call it what you want

...it's still a Democratic majority with a Democratic leader and Democratic-controlled committees.

Not to mention that every independent will caucus with Democrats (I think Sinema will caucus with Dems, but who knows).

Don't know what point people try to make pointing to independents who vote primarily with Democrats.

[Ocelot II]

12. No, it's 51-49. Sanders and King have always been independents,

they have always caucused with the Democrats, and they have always been counted as Democrats because it's the caucus affiliation that counts rather than the party designation. Sinema, who has voted with Dems 90% of the time, will also caucus with them and be counted as one. Declaring herself an independent is just her way of getting the degree of attention that she will have lost once the Democrats got an actual majority.