Despite his administration recently saying there will be no federal vaccine mandates, President Biden announced one yesterday. So much for the 10th Amendment.
Summary
President Biden unveiled new steps the federal government will take to end the coronavirus epidemic yesterday in a speech that completely ignores the restrictions placed on Washington by the U.S. Constitution.
- Included in this plan is a requirement for businesses with more than 100 employees to mandate either COVID-19 vaccines or weekly testing.
- The mandate, issued through an obscure regulation by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, would affect 66% of all private sector workers.
- Biden is also requiring all executive branch federal employees to be vaccinated, as well as teachers and staff for federal education programs like Head Start.
- In a soundbite fit for a dictator, Biden took aim at various governors and the 10th Amendment, saying “I’ll use my powers as President to get them out of the way” if he doesn’t like what a governor is doing to combat COVID-19.
- Republican candidates, lawmakers and governors immediately criticized the mandates threatening legal action, urging businesses and workers not to comply with a vaccine mandate.
- The New York Times published a column by Robby Soave of Reason magazine, in which Soave argued the proposed mandate “will engender a titanic backlash and create a spate of lawsuits.”
- CNN did what CNN does best: Sidestep the fundamental story and report on its rivals, with Oliver Darcy calling Republican and conservative media coverage criticizing the mandates “bad faith nonsense.”
- Huffington Post largely reported the story positively, highlighting that President Biden’s “patience is wearing thin” with unvaccinated Americans.
- Newsmax interviewed Florida Rep Byron Donalds who said the new vaccine mandate “violates the liberty of every federal worker.”
- The Federalist called the mandates “fascist” in their headline and noted White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki previewed the administration’s overreach in her afternoon press briefing.
- The Washington Examiner’s opinion section highlighted the practical side effects of Biden’s vaccine mandates on the private sector, arguing it is going to shrink the workforce or cause companies to lose employees. The author also speculated the mandate could force companies hovering just above 100 employees to cut jobs to avoid the costs associated with it.
Author’s Take
Just a few years ago, it would be unfathomable that a president could take such an action. The government’s intrusion into matters of the private sector has picked up pace in recent years. At least in the past, bureaucrats would veil their threats not unlike the phrase “Nice business you got there. It’d be a shame if something happened to it,” before extorting them via a regulation or permit fee.
This is full on coercion, done by an obscure regulatory framework tucked into OSHA. Once again, the Biden administration spends weeks, if not months, saying they don’t have the authority or that private sector vaccine mandates aren’t on the table only to announce something they know they don’t have the power to do.
When the U.S. Code and the regulatory framework is so large and complex, that all it requires is a few weeks of attorneys to find a tiny fragment of regulatory nonsense to justify literally any action, no matter how unconstitutional, the American people should know it’s time to dismantle the administrative state.
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© Dallas Gerber, 2021
