Moderate Democrat Joe Manchin says he will join Republicans to kill funding for Joe Biden's vaccine mandate
By jdheyes // 2021-12-12
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Moderate Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia is going to join Republicans to vote to defund Joe Biden's COVID-19 mandate in a move that will no doubt increase criticism from the party's far-left progressive wing. In a statement, Manchin said he believes the government should “incentivize, not penalize” businesses to force employees to take a vaccine that is still largely experimental. “Let me be clear, I do not support any government vaccine mandate on private businesses,” Manchin said. “That’s why I have cosponsored and will strongly support a bill to overturn the federal government vaccine mandate for private businesses.” “I have personally had both vaccine doses and a booster shot and I continue to urge every West Virginian to get vaccinated themselves," Manchin added. “I’ve been very supportive of the mandate for the federal government, for military, for all the people that work on government payroll," he said last week. "I’ve been less enthused about the private sector.” Also last week, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pushed back on conservatives' effort to use a stopgap government funding measure to defund Biden's mandate at the risk of shutting down the government, going on to suggest that federal courts would take care of the mandate for Republicans. “Multiple courts have pushed the pause button on these government vaccine mandates. There is a decent chance the courts will strike them down,” McConnell said. “Secondly, next week we are going to have a vote on the vaccine mandate prohibiting that regulation from going into effect. I think it has a decent chance of passing the Senate.” With Manchin's support in the evenly-divided chamber, it will pass -- unless some Republican coward bails. “I basically am 1,000% in favor of the federal government having a mandate [for employees]…private businesses, no,” Manchin told The Wall Street Journal this week. “I don’t think the government has to make every decision for the private sector, you know. You’ve been doing quite well without us.” There is also a distinct possibility that Manchin will hold up Biden's "Build Back Better" monstrosity, another multitrillion-dollar spending measure the West Virginia Democrat believes will drive up inflation even more than it already has been. “The unknown we’re facing today is much greater than the need that people believe in this aspirational bill that we’re looking at,” Manchin told the WSJ. “We’ve gotta make sure we get this right. We just can’t continue to flood the market, as we’ve done.” “We’ve done so many good things in the last 10 months, and no one is taking a breath,” he added. The paper added: Democrats say the package is fully paid for and point to reports from Moody’s Investors Service and others projecting no major inflation impact. Republicans have attacked the bill as wasteful and said it could fuel inflation. Senators are currently discussing with the nonpartisan parliamentarian what provisions can comply with the budget maneuver, according to aides, putting some immigration- and drug-pricing-related provisions in peril. When that process will be complete isn’t clear. Here's the kicker, however: Even if the defunding measure passes with Manchin's assistance, there is no guarantee there will be enough Democratic defections in the House to pass a defunding measure. And even then, Biden would have to sign the bill, which is never going to happen. So, Americans who are sick of being told what to inject into their bodies are going to have to rely on federal courts -- and so far, so good. In fact, according to The American Wire, another federal judge blocked Biden's mandate this week -- this one for federal contractors -- the American Wire reports: U.S. District Judge Stan Baker of the Southern District of Georgia, a Trump appointee, also ruled that Biden’s federal contractor mandate, which required employees working for those firms to be fully vaccinated by Jan. 18, was not lawful. A growing number of Americans are fed up with the tyranny they see coming from the Biden regime. Sources include: TheNewAmerican.com AmericanWireNews.com WSJ.com NaturalNews.com
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