The Vice President in much of American history has been seen as a much more minor role than in the last 12 years especially. During the last twelve years it has been Cheney (8years) and Biden (4year…so far) that have occupied this role, so how much has changed under these two people? And what powers does a Vice President possess?
There are 4 powers that the Vice President has according to the traditional constitution and one subsequent amendment has meant that there are now 5 powers.
These are as follows; Counting and announcing the result of the Electoral College votes after a presidential election. This role is almost irrelevant for the vice president since it carries no power or weight; nevertheless it is still classed as a Power. Secondly the Vice President has the role of becoming President of the U.S.A (at least until the next election) in the event of a Presidents death, retirement or removal from office. This is without doubt the most important role and is a power that the public take into consideration when a Presidential candidate announces their running mate.
This is perhaps one of a number of contributing factors as to why John McCain lost the 2008 Presidential Election as since he was fairly old and the job as President can be quite taxing, his running mate – Sarah Pailin – was not what the public would consider ‘Presidential material’ if the worst happened to McCain. In 1963 Vice President Lyndon Johnson became President as JKF had been assassinated.
The third power is that of being the Presiding officer of the senate, although this power is rarely used as a junior member will usually chair the debate. The fourth power is of significance but rarely used, and that is too cast a tie breaking vote in the senate in the event of a tie. This power however is rarely used and on average of the last 30 years it has been used slightly more than once every 2 years. This fifth and newest power, first established in 1967 is that the Vice President can become acting President if the President is declared or declares himself disabled. This power has been used three times since it has been introduced, twice by Dick Cheney for a total of under 4hours.
Dick Cheney was Vice President from 2001-2009 for the whole of George Bush Jr. Presidency. It is practically undisputed that Dick Cheney is the most powerful Vice President in American history as he changed most people’s view on the role. Since Cheney had a CV fitting of a President rather than a VP he was more than qualified to take on more responsibilities, not to mention that the ‘stars aligned perfectly’ for Cheney over issues such as 9/11 and the corresponding War on Terror. Due to Cheney having much more experience than Bush, Bush was happy to take a backseat and allow Cheney to assert his knowledge ultimately giving the Vice President more power as it seems clear that Biden is pretty much playing a similar role for the less experienced Obama. The other benefit Bush had with Cheney is that he had passed up Presidential ambitions of his own and hence did not have to worry that Cheney would be trying to take the spotlight off him.
Another key role that Cheney played was in the legislature whereby he liaised with Congress in order to pass through any legislation the Executive desired. However it could be argued that Joe Biden with his 36years of experience in the senate would have much more influence. This was proved over Obama’s health care reform whereby Presidents such as Reagan had previously tried and failed to pass this reform. Although Obama’s reform was watered down it was still a remarkable achievement and Biden obviously had a lot to do with this.
In conclusion, Cheney expanded the role of the VP to something that is more prestigious and more involved in everyday affairs. Biden since his reign has refused to expand the role further and while he has not decreased the office; he has worked more in the background than his predecessor mainly due to the situations that arouse under Cheney and Bush.
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