I almost can’t believe this. It’s almost like an over-the-top movie script in which a political party has been taken over by evil aliens from another planet. But it’s just the Republican Party, living its best life:
Conservatives on both sides of the Capitol are privately plotting to force a government shutdown Friday in an effort to defund the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate on the private sector, multiple GOP sources told Playbook.
Capitalizing on a last-minute scramble to fund the government, a group of Senate conservatives is planning to object to quick consideration of a stopgap measure to extend funding into early 2022 unless Democratic leaders agree to deny money to enforce the mandate. Because of the tight schedule — and Senate rules that require unanimous consent to move quickly — the senators believe they’ll be able to drag out the process well past midnight Friday, when funding officially expires.
“I’m sure we would all like to simplify the process for resolving the CR, but I can’t facilitate that without addressing the vaccine mandates,” Sen. MIKE LEE (R-Utah) told Playbook in a statement. “Given that federal courts across the country have raised serious issues with these mandates, it’s not unreasonable for my Democratic colleagues to delay enforcement of the mandates for at least the length of the continuing resolution.”
It is unclear how many Senate conservatives are publicly willing to follow through on the shutdown threat. But 15 signed a letter spearheaded by Sen. ROGER MARSHALL (R-Kan.) in early November vowing to “use all means at our disposal” — including invoking Senate procedures to gum up the works — to block passage of a continuing resolution that doesn’t stop implementation of a vaccine mandate. Technically, all they need is one senator to object in order to push past Friday’s midnight deadline, and several are already discussing this issue.
THE GROUP HAS BACKUP FROM THE HOUSE: In a meeting Tuesday night, the House Freedom Caucus voted to pressure Minority Leader KEVIN MCCARTHY to take a harder line on the so-called continuing resolution unless Democrats strip out funding to enforce the mandate, according to sources familiar with what happened. Last time the House passed a funding stopgap, 34 House Republicans backed the bill and GOP leaders did not whip against it. But the group plans to demand that GOP lawmakers stand firm in supporting their Senate colleagues.
“There is leverage immediately in the Senate, and we think that House Republicans ought to be backing up any number of Senate Republicans … to use all procedural tools to deny the continuing resolution passage Friday night — unless they restrict use of those funds for vaccine mandates,” Rep. CHIP ROY (R-Texas),a Freedom Caucus member, told Playbook.
LET’S PLAY THIS OUT: The strategy,if it holds, means the government will likely shut down for several days — even if appropriators strike a bipartisan agreement to extend funding by the end of today. A Senate Democratic leadership staffer told Playbook that without an agreement to truncate the timeline, the Senate would need at least five days to process the continuing resolution. That would mean a brief shutdown ending Sunday at the earliest, but possibly dragging into next week if a deal isn’t reached today.
The reason for the delay: The Senate can’t begin the process of voting until the CR passes the House — and the House can’t pass the CR until a deal is agreed to.
Senate Majority Leader CHUCK SCHUMER appeared to nod to the possibility of trouble Tuesday, seeking to preemptively blame the GOP in case something goes awry. “To avoid a needless shutdown, Republicans will have to cooperate and approve the government funding legislation without delay,” he told reporters. “If Republicans choose obstruction, there will be a shutdown entirely because of their own dysfunction.”
MCCONNELL DOWNPLAYS SHUTDOWN THREAT: Senate Minority Leader MITCH McCONNELL predicted Tuesday that “we won’t shut down,” arguing that “nobody should be concerned about a government shutdown.” The Kentucky Republican — who has never been a fan of shutdown tactics — could try to make the case to conservatives that such a move would backfire on their cause. The issue came up at the Senate GOP lunch Tuesday, we’re told, and is expected to dominate another Republican lunch meeting today being run by Lee’s conservative Senate Steering Committee.
Since Democrats control the White House and both chambers of Congress, some conservatives think that they can get Democrats to cave out of fear of being blamed. Other Republicans acknowledged to us that this is probably wishful thinking, especially because the party making the demands in past shutdowns shouldered the bulk of the blowback.
The effort comes as health officials have warned that the new Omicron Covid-19 variant could be highly contagious and dangerous to Americans. Democrats will no doubt argue that Republicans are playing with fire when it comes to shuttering government services, especially in the face of the potential new risks of Omicron. But from a political standpoint, Republicans believe polls will move in their direction in opposition to mandates — not only among the GOP base but with independents as well.
MORE FRONTS IN THE VACCINE WARS: Even if McConnell convinces his members to abandon a shutdown showdown,the fight over President JOE BIDEN’s vaccine mandates on Capitol Hill is not going away. As early as next week, Sen. MIKE BRAUN (R-Ind.) plans to force a vote to disapprove and nullify Biden’s vaccine mandate through a process called the Congressional Review Act. He already has all 50 Republicans lined up to back the issue, and they’re hoping to flip one moderate Democrat.
If they do, the issue would then go to the House for a vote, where Senate Republicans hope they can pressure some front-liners in tough districts to back their cause, which would force Biden to veto the matter and own an issue they think is toxic once again.
In the House, Roy is also pushing GOP leadership to try to use the National Defense Authorization Act to address the matter as well, an effort our Olivia Beavers scooped Tuesday. Since more than 30 House Democrats opposed the chamber’s first vote on the NDAA, Democrats will almost certainly need GOP assistance to help clear the final bill through the chamber in the coming days. The House GOP could refuse to cooperate until the vaccine mandates are scrapped, he said.
Meanwhile, wingnut federal judges are ruling against the employer mandates even those specifically for health care workers:
A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction on Tuesday to halt the start of President Biden’s national vaccine mandate for health care workers, which had been set to begin next week.
The injunction, written by Judge Terry A. Doughty, effectively expanded a separate order issued on Monday by a federal court in Missouri. The earlier one had applied only to 10 states that joined in a lawsuit against the president’s decision to require all health workers in hospitals and nursing homes to receive at least their first shot by Dec. 6 and to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 4.
“There is no question that mandating a vaccine to 10.3 million health care workers is something that should be done by Congress, not a government agency,” Judge Doughty, of U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, wrote. He added: “It is not clear that even an act of Congress mandating a vaccine would be constitutional.”
The judge, who was nominated to the court by former President Donald J. Trump, also wrote that the plaintiffs had an “interest in protecting its citizens from being required to submit to vaccinations” and to prevent the loss of jobs and tax revenue that may result from the mandate.
He said he was concerned about the mandates causing staffing shortages in health care facilities as the unvaccinated quit their jobs in order to avoid potecting themselves and others.
I guess he wants to make sure there isn’t any patient shortage either.
This twitter thread says it all:
In 1904 Justice Harlan wrote: “Real liberty for all could not exist under the operation of a principle which recognizes the right of each individual person to use his own, whether in respect of his person or his property, regardless of the injury that may be done to others.”
The @GOP has turned the court into an exercise of politics by other means, unaccountable and simply willing to do what their political masters, large donors would have them do.
Vaccine mandates have stood the test of time again and again.
From 1904 again:
“For nearly a century, most of the members of the medical profession have regarded vaccination, repeated after intervals, as a preventive of smallpox that, while they have recognized the possibility of injury to an individual from carelessness in the performance of it, or even, in a conceivable case, without carelessness they generally have considered the risk of such an injury too small to be seriously weighed as against the benefits coming from the discreet and proper use of the preventive.”
Originally tweeted by Gregg Gonsalves (@gregggonsalves) on December 1, 2021.