Minnesota’s Republican lawmakers in Washington and St. Paul have condemned President Joe Biden’s COVID plan that forces all businesses with at least 100 employees to mandate the vaccine or weekly testing. Businesses that do not comply are threatened with thousands of dollars in fines.
All four of Minnesota’s Republican U.S. representatives slammed the plan, announced Thursday, as an unconstitutional and authoritarian overreach into the personal medical decisions of private citizens.
“This is an unconscionable move by POTUS,” tweeted Rep. Tom Emmer. “Private employers should not be forced to comply with this egregious federal government overreach. They know what works for their workplace and employees, not Washington bureaucrats.”
Rep. Michelle Fischbach called the plan an “attack on the civil liberties of every American.”
“The federal government has no authority to force companies and their employees to be vaccinated,” she said. “Is this the ‘unity’ President Biden promised? We’re still waiting.”
Reps. Pete Stauber and Jim Hagedorn also joined in, the former calling Biden’s plan “tyrannical” and a “complete abuse of power” that’s “potentially unconstitutional.”
“Joe Biden along with his army of unelected federal bureaucrats have absolutely no right to trample over workers’ rights, medical freedom and individual liberty,” he added.
Rep. Hagedorn published his thoughts Friday morning, calling the mandate unconstitutional and “un-American.”
“This mandate IS a direct assault on freedom and an attempt by this administration to gain more control over Americans’ lives,” he tweeted. “Biden has failed to ‘shut down the virus’ and is resorting to authoritarianism and tyranny.'”
“The American people have the right to make their own decisions about their medical care for themselves and their family. And when doing so, make these decisions in consultation with their doctors, not the President or bureaucrats.”
Newly-elected Minnesota Senate Majority Leader Jeremy Miller called Biden’s mandates “simply ridiculous and unreasonable.”
“As businesses continue to bounce back from the pandemic, there is already a struggle to find enough workers and these mandates will make it even more difficult for businesses and the economy to fully recover,” he said.
J.D. Vance, a U.S. Senate candidate on the Republican ticket in Ohio, went even further than the Minnesota GOP delegation, calling for “mass civil disobedience” in response to Biden’s plan.
“Joe Biden’s proposed COVID mandates are not only illegal and unconstitutional, they’re morally reprehensible,” he said in a statement. “While Joe Biden likes to talk about millions of American citizens as if they’re nothing more than vermin to be ruled by him and his friends, he’s revealed himself to be nothing more than a geriatric tyrant.”
“No American citizen should ever be forcibly segregated by the government over their vaccine status. The Federal Government’s attempt to bully and coerce citizens into choosing between their livelihood and their own bodily autonomy must be resisted.”
Vance then urged American businesses to refuse to comply with the requirements.
“DO NOT COMPLY. Do not comply with the mandates. Do not pay government fines. Don’t allow yourself to be bullied and controlled. Only mass civil disobedience will save us from Joe Biden’s naked authoritarianism,” he said.
In addition to forcing the vaccine or weekly testing on companies with 100+ employees, Biden’s plan requires all federal workers and contractors to get vaccinated and is eliminating their weekly testing option altogether. It also requires the vaccine for all health care workers at hospitals and other facilities receiving Medicare and Medicaid funding, requires employers to provide paid time off for people to get vaccinated, and urges large venues to require proof of vaccination or a negative COVID test.
Those requirements and recommendations constitute only one of the six points in the president’s plan. Other points include easy access to booster shots, expanding testing and making at-home tests more affordable, new economic support for small businesses, and various measures to keep schools open “safely.”
Evan Stambaugh
Evan Stambaugh is a freelance writer who had previously been a sports blogger. He has a BA in theology and an MA in philosophy.
