Biden Administration Reads Tea Leaves, Drops Vaccine Requirements for Businesses
[guest post by JVW]
The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is scraping its vaccine-or-test mandate for large employers after the Supreme Court blocked the rule earlier this month.
“Although OSHA is withdrawing the vaccination and testing ETS as an enforceable emergency temporary standard, the agency is not withdrawing the ETS as a proposed rule,” the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration said in a statement. “The agency is prioritizing its resources to focus on finalizing a permanent COVID-19 Healthcare Standard.”
“OSHA continues to strongly encourage the vaccination of workers against the continuing dangers posed by Covid-19 in the workplace,” the agency added.
This decision, of course, comes on the heels of the Court’s 6-3 decision two weeks ago that the federal mandates exceeded the authority of the CDC, OHSA, and the executive branch to impose them, absent authorization from Congress.
This is all part and parcel of the curious and annoying tendency of the Biden Administration to push for policies which they know will either fail legislatively due to reluctance from their own nominal allies in Congress or because they know at heart that the policies are not a legitimate function of the federal government and that the judicial branch will eventually get around to nullifying them. President-elect Biden had ruled out a mandatory vaccinations and a national mask mandate back in December 2020, even though just months earlier (i.e. before he had been elected) he had looked favorably upon a federal masking requirement and claimed that his advisors suggested it would pass Constitutional muster. But even Team Biden should have had severe doubt that a Supreme Court majority would give their blessing to the nationwide vaccinate-or-test mandate that OSHA imposed upon private businesses with his tacit support. In the end, though, just like with the Biden flip-flop on the Constitutionality of rent moratoriums, it would seem that yet again the President was swayed by the more Warrenesque elements of the Democrat coalition or by the horrible political instincts of his utterly vacuous Vice-President, and he unsurprisingly charged straight into the cannon fire waving the banner of regulatory overreach.
The Administration now contends that they will focus their efforts on encouraging vaccination holdouts (advice: badgering them hasn’t worked; try something new) and focusing on small-bore efforts to combat the spread of the virus. Given their plunging poll numbers and the willingness of the science bureaucracy to promote the idea that the new omicron variant of COVID is starting to wane, it would appear more and more that the Biden Administration is looking for reasons and excuses for winding down the national hysteria and encouraging a return to normal — though naturally without giving up the expanded government powers that have been enacted in the name of public safety.
– JVW
Don’t fret: I’m sure the Biden Administration will find new and innovative ways to annoy private citizens and businesses before too long.
JVW (ee64e4) — 1/25/2022 @ 2:25 pmJoe Buh Bye Done, bring on Kamalalala ding dong.
mg (8cbc69) — 1/25/2022 @ 2:31 pmLet’s just save a lot of electrons and cut to the chase with Ol’Joe– in his own words:
“What a stupid son-of-a-bitch.”
‘Nothing personal, pal,’ eh Joey? Except in any way shape or form, it clearly is personal.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/25/2022 @ 2:50 pmComplex problems are always made worse by woke political hacks.
mg (8cbc69) — 1/25/2022 @ 3:01 pmF***ing Trump! Look at what he made us go and do!
nk (1d9030) — 1/25/2022 @ 4:02 pmI expect them to use contracts as the cudgel next.
Kevin M (38e250) — 1/25/2022 @ 4:05 pm@5: “It’s just this damn pandemic and that lying son of a bitch Trump!”
Kevin M (38e250) — 1/25/2022 @ 4:08 pmOr a tax for the unvaccinated.
Kevin M (38e250) — 1/25/2022 @ 4:10 pmThe unfortunate thing about government worshippers is they want the government to solve every perceived “problem”, and they want it to be the federal government instead of the states.
norcal (d4ed1d) — 1/25/2022 @ 4:48 pmextremely high antibodies trump a vax and it’s jokers wild boosters
mg (8cbc69) — 1/25/2022 @ 4:53 pmThis is priceless:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uu11f4ndnv4
What a stupid son-of-a-bitch, indeed.
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/25/2022 @ 5:05 pmThis is priceless:
Joe Biden’s lack of self-awareness has always been comical; now, though, it’s downright frightening. He lives in a world where he is Lifeguard Joe with the golden leg hairs and every potential adversary is Corn Pop — that is to say, a world that only exists in his imagination.
JVW (ee64e4) — 1/25/2022 @ 5:14 pmTo be a succubus is to be a liar, mg. Don’t listen to the pretty lady with the hair that moves by itself in still air. The death rate of the unvaccinated is more than four times higher than the death rate of the vaccinated.
nk (1d9030) — 1/25/2022 @ 5:21 pm@12. Isn’t that so true, JVW!! I recall listening to him bloviate back in the mid-70s when we lived in South Jersey and we’d get news on Channel 12 out of Wilmington. He’d shovel so much classic, transparent and typical politician BS you either laughed or just never took anything he ever said seriously and was glad he was across the bay and Delaware’s problem. I think the real tragedy of this is how none of this young generation of media-hounds took the time to dig into his background from the Pet Rock and SX-70s days and gave him a pass on his history of bogus bull and his plagiarism – something those very news hounds would be fired for doing.,
DCSCA (f4c5e5) — 1/25/2022 @ 5:33 pm