Letter: Here is why the vice president breaks ties in the Senate – Grand Forks Herald

This is in response to the

Feb. 25 letter by Ron Schmidt

titled, “Why let the vice president break ties in the Senate? It’s like a veto.”

The answer to your question is very simple Mr. Schmidt.

In the U.S. Constitution, Article 1, section 3, it specifically states that the “The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.” Since 1789, 283 tie-breaking votes have been cast.

What that means in lay terms is that the vice president (in this case Vice President Harris) has not only the Constitutional right but the obligation to break tie votes in the Senate. That also means that no, it’s not like a veto, and the U.S. Constitution never intended it to be.

I’m somewhat surprised that since you obviously think highly of former Vice President Mike Pence you even suggest that Vice President Harris casting the deciding vote to break a tie vote in the Senate is an overreach of the Executive Branch. Obviously you were not aware that while Pence was in office, he cast his vote to break a tie in a Senate vote 13 times.

You should be happy to know that free speech, misinformation or not, is protected by the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which states “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

While it makes no difference to me where your political preferences may lie, may I suggest that prior to publicly questioning the overreach of the Executive Branch of our federal government under President Biden, you first study our Constitution to understand how checks and balances are designed to work.