When Alexander Hamilton’s character in the eponymous musical quips that Vice President John Adams “doesn’t have a real job,” he may as well have described — without much hyperbole — the next 200 years worth of vice presidents.
Mike Pence can prove him wrong by fulfilling his constitutional role as president of the Senate and breaking the logjam on stimulus funding.
Americans are still suffering from the pandemic and its economic damage. The worst tales recount families who cannot afford food. First-time jobless claims are adjacent to those made in August. Business owners have pled for more help. Airlines will be but a shell without targeted assistance.
Yet politics has made a mess of stimulus talks in Washington. The president abruptly ended any chance for a deal earlier this month, claiming the country would have to wait until after the election. He reversed course a few hours later, and tentative negotiations have rekindled between Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
They’re still a mile apart. The House passed a $2.2 trillion relief bill earlier this month and the White House countered with an $1.8 trillion offer. President Trump now says he would consider a package even more than Democrats were asking for. Both parties want a win, but neither wants to give credit to the other.
Meanwhile, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is a stone wall. To his credit, he has called for a vote on smaller, targeted bills, but they fall short of the kind of package both the House and the White House want. Senate Republicans may be on board to support something more substantial, but McConnell hasn’t rallied his party.
Pence can change that. As president of the Senate, he should sit in the chair, call the chamber to session and demand every member sit at their desk. He could bring proposals to the floor, open it for debate on live television and let each senator be on the record supporting or denying the funds that would go alleviate American suffering.
His job is not to merely cast the tie-breaking vote. He legally presides over the Senate.
Pence could reverse what has amounted to years of senatorial atrophy. The once greatest deliberative body in the world has succumbed to the whims of party leaders who have essentially brought legislation to a halt.
During the government shutdown at the end of 2018, both Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and McConnell were responsible for deploying arcane procedural moves to ensure that none of the other 98 senators could do anything to advance real solutions that would fund the government. Both leaders choose fake fights over deliberation, bringing wedge issues back to their constituents and asking for money to defeat their political foes.
As the former executive of Indiana, Pence is capable of governing. He has the chops to bring senators in line and push forward a deal.
It would at least be a start to making the Senate great again.