So why haven't those Democrats done anything?

Your Republican friends are probably fond of pointing out how the Democrats have been in control of the House and the Senate since 2006, and they haven't accomplished much of anything. Well, that's true. But why not? It's simple, they do not have a veto-proof majority. It takes 60 votes in the Senate to pass a bill that the President can't veto. The Dems have 51 Senators (on a good day, when none of them are battling life-threatening illnesses). So anything that they can't get at least nine Republicans to sign on to, President Bush just tells them he will veto it. That's why they can't accomplish much.