In casting his third tie-breaking vote in the Senate since becoming vice president, Mike Pence on Tuesday gave the Trump administration its biggest triumph on Capitol Hill: the move to open Obamacare for debate and thus pave the way for its repeal.
But Pence did much more than simply cast a key vote. Several sources told Newsmax that Pence’s efforts were pivotal to winning over to the bill conservative pro-family groups such as Concerned Women for America and the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
"On healthcare, as on so many other personnel and policy matters, Vice President Pence is an indispensable player in moving President Trump's agenda,” Faith and Freedom head Ralph Reed told me. “President Trump made one of his best decisions when he selected Pence to be his running mate roughly a year ago, and it continues to pay dividends.
Paul Caprio, director of the Chicago-based One Nation under God Foundation, agreed. “Nothing done on legislation by Dick Cheney and Dan Quayle [the last two Republican vice presidents] approaches the level of what Mike Pence has done on the healthcare bill,” he said. “The relationships with members of Congress are much more Mike Pence’s than they are [White House Chief of Staff] Reince Priebus.'”
Former Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott agreed. Pence, Lott told Newsmax, “Is unique among modern vice presidents. He’s always been a conservative and has the background of being in a leadership position [Pence was GOP conference chairman] when he was in the House. He is widely respected in among conservatives and well-suited to reach out and influence senators.”
Several presidential historians agreed that Pence played an unusually significant role for a vice president in the enactment of legislation.
Justin Coffey, Quincy University professor and biographer of former Vice President Spiro Agnew, likened Pence’s role to that of “Vice President Al Gore in helping the 1993 budget get through the House and Senate. A number of Gore's Democratic colleagues trusted him and likely would not have voted for it without his lobbying.”
“One swallow does not make a spring nor one vote a legislative agenda,” said David Pietrusza, author of four books on presidential election years. “But Pence certainly proved critical in this vote as perhaps no vice president has been since Richard Nixon's role in Joe McCarthy's censure [in 1954].”
Pietrusza added that “Pence had to do the job. In the land of the blind the one-eyed man is king. The rest of the Trump White House is largely blind — inexperienced — in terms of working with Congress. The task fell to Pence, a former congressman, and he got it done.”
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax. For more of his reports, Go Here Now.
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