Congressman Smith Capitol Report
Mandates For All
November 5th, 2021
This week, Joe Biden officially rolled out his vaccine mandates on private businesses. It is no exaggeration to say this is almost certainly unconstitutional and is the single most authoritarian action the federal government has taken in my lifetime. Joe Biden did this without a shred of consent from Congress, giving the American people absolutely no say over their personal and private medical decisions.
It sickens me to my core that working class Americans, who despite personal risk, stayed on the job throughout the pandemic to provide for their families and produce the goods our country needed to get by, are now being told they will lose their livelihood if they don’t sacrifice their medical freedom. After a year of being on the frontlines of the pandemic, President Biden has decided to thank our nation’s heroes by firing them. Several recent polls have found Joe Biden’s approval rating in the low 40s, and the majority of these polls show his disapproval above 50 percent. A big reason why is this utter disrespect being shown to working-class Americans.
The federal government has never imposed a vaccine mandate on American citizens. And Congress has given no authority to an agency to do so.
Now that the Biden administration has come out with this rule, it needs to be challenged in court. States need to fight on behalf of every citizen, and employers across this country should stand up for their employees’ freedom. The consequences of this rule going into effect are dire. In rural areas, this will create a crisis in access to health care. How on earth could it be considered building back better if people can’t get health care?
I am doing everything I can to fight this dangerous rule. On October 27, I wrote the Biden Administration and called on them to withdraw this authoritarian, unconstitutional vaccine mandate. The letter stated, “Given the reckless and shortsighted nature of the vaccine mandate…, we urge you to immediately withdraw it. OMB should not proceed with this excessive executive action which has been largely hidden from the eyes of millions of Americans it will affect.”
I have also co-authored the Freedom from Mandates Act and the Health Freedom for All Act, to ensure that federal vaccine mandates will ever be allowed to go into effect. I have also added my name and your voice to the list of elected office holders standing up against forced COVID vaccinations in the Armed Forces. I will do everything I can to convince my colleagues to pass these critical pieces of legislation.
Missourians have suffered plenty during this pandemic. Many of us know friends, family members or loved ones who became ill or even died from COVID. So no one will lecture us about the damage this disease can cause. But that’s what freedom and liberty is all about: the ability to make choices for yourself. We all know the risks. We all can decide for ourselves what’s best for our families. We don’t need government bureaucrats – or the president himself – making this decision for us.
I’ve long said the best government is the government closest to the people, because they understand best what people want. This one-size-fits-all federal mandate is going to do real harm to rural areas, and the Biden administration needs to wake up and stop trying to control our lives. I will ALWAYS trust Missourians, which is why I will fight tooth and nail against this unconstitutional mandate.
