The Senate on Wednesday voted to repeal President Biden’s federal vaccine mandate for private businesses with 100 or more employees.
The final vote was 52-48, with moderate Democratic Senators Joe Manchin (WV) and Jon Tester (MT) joining Republicans to vote in favor of the repeal.
The vote is largely symbolic, as the resolution now heads to the House where it will be difficult to get enough Democrats to take up the vote. Even then, Biden would likely veto the bill should it make it past Congress.
Senator Mike Braun (R-IN), who sponsored the resolution, explains why repeal of the federal vaccine mandate is essential to stop government overreach.
“It’s got Main Street America scared,” Braun said before the vote. “They’re worried about, well, what does this mean on other issues?”
Added Braun, “Anybody who thinks this is a good idea, imagine the next time it happens when you’re on the wrong side on whatever the merits of the case would be.”
“As vaccine mandates lag in popularity nationwide, some moderate Democrats sided with Republicans, giving the bill [to repeal the 100 employee vaccine mandate] the necessary votes to clear the Senate.”https://t.co/s3BDAz0LHX
— Thomas Massie (@RepThomasMassie) December 9, 2021
Republicans Celebrate Vote Against Vaccine Mandate
While the vote may be more symbolic than anything else, Republicans nonetheless are celebrating the fact that some Democrats crossed the aisle to vote against the vaccine mandate.
“Republicans view Wednesday’s Senate vote as a significant win,” The Hill writes.
“It’s the first time they’ve been able to use the Congressional Review Act to successfully get a resolution targeting a Biden rule through the Senate.”
Manchin, one of few occasionally reasonable Democrats in the Senate, argued the federal government “should incentivize, not penalize, private employers whose responsibility it is to protect their employees from COVID-19.”
All 50 Republicans voted against Biden’s unconstitutional vaccine mandate for private businesses. Two Democrats joined them: West Virginia’s Joe Manchin & Montana’s Jon Tester. Good for both men for breaking with their party. https://t.co/NUTYER1TSk
— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) December 9, 2021
And then there are the never reasonable Democrats in the Senate like Chuck Schumer (NY).
Schumer accused Republicans of being ‘anti-vaxxers,’ of which there is no evidence supporting his accusation, and compared them to anti-Science flat-Earthers.
“Some of the anti-vaxxers here in this chamber remind me of what happened 400 years ago when people were clinging to the fact that the sun revolved around the Earth. They just didn’t believe science,” Schumer said.
“Or 500 years ago when they were sure the Earth was flat.”
The claim is ironic, since the “accepted science” was that the solar system was geocentric. In those days, Schumer would have been accusing people of being “heliocentric extremists.”
He said that before the vote. Schumer must now contend with the fact that he made such heinous comments about two people in his own party.
.@SenSchumer: “Some of the anti-vaxxers here in this chamber reminds me of what happened 400 years ago when people were clinging to the fact that the sun revolved around the earth, […] or 500 years ago when they were sure the earth was flat.” pic.twitter.com/hNvHcHrcQR
— The Hill (@thehill) December 9, 2021
RELATED: Federal Court Blocks Vaccine Mandate For Health Workers In 10 States
Courts Must Be Flat-Earthers Too
The White House in early November announced a vaccine mandate that would run through the Occupational Safety and Health Administration – or OSHA – and would levy fines of up to $14,000 per violation for companies with more than 100 employees.
It was set to take effect on January 4th.
Since the announcement by the President, the mandate has been shot down time and time again in federal courts.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit earlier this month temporarily blocked the administration’s coronavirus mandate, suggesting it raises “grave statutory and constitutional issues.”
A federal court in Missouri put a halt to the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate for health care workers in 10 states. A judge in Louisiana halted the vaccine mandate for certain health care workers nationwide.
BREAKING:
A federal court in Georgia has entered a nationwide injunction against the federal-contractor vaccine mandate.
Now ALL of the Biden Administration vaccine mandates have been halted.
Now, under my Order, vaccine mandates are not allowed in Texas.
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) December 7, 2021
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Georgia became the latest to block the federal contractor vaccine mandate.
“The Court acknowledges the tragic toll that the COVID-19 pandemic has wrought throughout the nation and the globe,” the judge wrote in his ruling.
“However, even in times of crisis this Court must preserve the rule of law and ensure that all branches of government act within the bounds of their constitutionally granted authorities.”
That’s what Schumer and the other 47 Democrats who support the federal mandate oppose: limits on government. Constitutional rights are not abandoned or surrendered simply due to a pandemic or ‘science’ that has evolved non-stop since COVID began.
They never should have been in the first place.
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