Leave it to a no-nonsense Texan like Rep. Chip Roy to lay out the basic issue confronting Congress — and especially Republican members of the Senate and House of Representatives — as they decide whether to fund President Joe Biden’s multiple vaccine mandates.
In a must-watch video, Roy explains to Fox News’ Shannon Bream what is at stake in the debate that is likely to be the most important decision made this week on Capitol Hill (and, given everything that is up for grabs at the moment, that is saying something).
I have been contending for decades that Republicans in Washington, sooner or later, must make up their minds: Are they going to walk the walk of limited government, individual freedom, and constitutional republicanism with their votes on the floor of Congress, or are they just going to talk it in fundraising appeals and on Fox News, Newsmax, and OAN?
Here’s just a sample of Roy’s observations:
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Should Republicans, should any member of Congress, vote to fund a government, fund the executive branch, and fund the very bureaucrats who are going after American citizens and telling them they are going to have to lose their jobs, lose their livelihoods, if they don’t take a mandatory vaccine under the mandates that President Biden has issued?
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The question really becomes: why would we fund bureaucrats to go after our constituents?
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It ought to be up to [the American people] and their doctors, not the president, not bureaucrats in Washington. So, why would we fund that?
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Dr. Fauci isn’t telling the truth when he said that some of the folks [at the border] are being tested… The truth is, [migrants] are being captured inland on ranches. They’re then put together, often shoved into vehicles, and they’re only tested if they’ve got symptoms. The fact is we don’t have any real testing operation going on at the border.
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This is about the government exercising control over the people, and that’s not necessary here. I don’t think we should fund the government in doing that. This is a test for Republicans. Will they stand up and fight for the American people or roll over?
Roy’s challenge to his GOP colleagues comes as three more federal judges declare Biden’s mandates to be unconstitutional, even as private-sector employees are losing their jobs and members of the U.S. military are being discharged, all because they prefer not to “take the jab,” the vaccination against the coronavirus.
Just this week, these judges slammed the brakes on the Biden mandates, citing constitutional grounds for doing so.
In his ruling, for example, U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Van Tatenhove stated, “The question presented here is narrow. Can the President use congressionally delegated authority to manage the federal procurement of goods and services to impose vaccines on the employees of federal contractors and subcontractors? In all likelihood, the answer to that question is no.”
Similarly, U.S. District Court Judge Terry Doughty declared:
If the executive branch is allowed to usurp the power of the legislative branch to make laws, two of the three powers conferred by our Constitution would be in the same hands. If human nature and history teach anything, it is that civil liberties face grave risks when governments proclaim indefinite states of emergency…During a pandemic such as this one, it is even more important to safeguard the separation of powers set forth in our Constitution to avoid erosion of our liberties.
And U.S District Court Judge Matthew Schelp opined that “Congress did not clearly authorize CMS [the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid] to enact this politically and economically vast, federalism-altering, and boundary-pushing mandate.”
As Liberty Counsel’s Mat Staver, who has been at the forefront of legal challenges to the mandates issued against federal civilian workers, members of the military and private-sector corporations, explained:
It is promising that these federal judges are acknowledging that Biden has no authority to issue unlawful shot mandates to any person in America. It’s a matter of time before more courts rule against this administration’s agenda to force people to choose between their livelihood and religious beliefs and injecting an experimental drug into their bodies.
So, as Rep. Roy might say, why the devil would any Republican — or honest Democrat not paralyzed by ideology, woke threats, or fears of presidential retaliation — not vote to defund enforcement of the Biden mandates?
How many congressional careers will be wrecked by votes cast this week on this issue?