AHC/WI The Vice Presidency is more akin to a Prime Minister?

The office of the Vice Presidency has always sort of been a mixed bag, when it comes to the US government. It's compared to a warm bucket of piss, amongst other things. Now, the VP has the right to cast the tie breaking vote in the Senate, but other than that they don't really serve much purpose (on paper).

Now, the Speaker of the House functions as the (occasionally nominal) head of the Congress, so what if the Vice President was re-configured (either during the drafting of the constitution, or in the aftermath of the election of 1800) to be a sort of Prime Minister (representing the views and policies of the Executive branch in the Legislative), combined with a similar role to the Speaker of the House (ceremonial head of the Senate, "leads the debate" or something)?

How, exactly, would this work out? What knock on effects would this have?
 
One of two things. First you could have the first VP be someone else than John Adams. Adams as VP set a lot of precedents but due to political differences with the Senate the VP's role was limited. This stayed the same for Jefferson who also was opposed by the Senate.

Another possibility is to have the 1800 election not be a tie. OTL this resulted from the electors failing to throw one vote away. The Federalist did this with one vote towards John Jay instead of Pinckey. This resulted from some electioneering and also from the fact that the previous election Burr had been betrayed by some of the electors with them failing to vote for him as Jefferson's running mate.

Anyways should you avoid the tarnishing caused by the 1800 tie than Burr will come in clean and will be able to be a more influential politicians. OTL a lot of mistrust between Jefferson and Burr was born from the tie. Meanwhile Hamilton's dislike for Burr festered when after telling Federalists to vote for Burr to deny Jefferson the presidency he found out that the Federalists would easily support Burr, even over Hamilton. By coming in clean Burr will have a better position to work from, and considering the many ore dents he set with his excellent decorum and manners it's possible he might make the VP into a more powerful position.
 
I think at best, the vice president with the powers of what would be senate majority leader.

I think Samuel Adams is a good candidate. He served as President of the Senate in Mass. for quite awhile. He also was more gregarious than his cousin.

Another idea is have the elections after Washinton keep getting thrown to the House and Senate, to the point early on, the electoral college is just done away with. Presidents are eledcted by the House, and Vice by the Senate.
 

Moglwi

Monthly Donor
would this not cause an even more fractured power structure with the now four centres of power

1 President
2 Vice President
3 Senate
4 Congress

and possibly Supreme court all jockying for power and patronage?
 
What about not having the Vice President run along side the president but instead have the leader of Congress be elected separately during the Senate and Representative elections?
 
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