Seriously Joe, stop shooting at your own foot.
OSHA is making one heck of a power grab and is about to cost the US a few billion just trying to fend off the lawsuits. States, companies and anything else affected by this crappy rule are already in court filing suit. Who will win? Well, I wouldn’t bet on OSHA.
They issued an ETS – which states that it preempts state and local laws. Yeah, that’s gonna go over well with states. How the heck a disease with a relatively low prevalence and an incredibly high survivability rate qualifies as ‘a grave risk’ is just mystifying. That the vaccines show early failure and fully vaccinated people can spread the virus – and die from the virus – makes the mandate purely insane.
Worse, OSHA isn’t public health. This is a disease, not a workplace hazard. It better not be – employers will end up fined for any infectious disease that happens to be going around. Forget the flu – ‘stomach flu’ and other contagious disease that spread around the workplace each year are going to cost people their jobs and their businesses.
At best – and I really, really wouldn’t bet on this lasting so long – the mandate will last one year and four months. The Democrats now face slaughter in the midterms – seriously, New Jersey was your only win and it isn’t actually a solid one yet what the heck do you think is going to happen when people start getting fired by overly anxious employers? Hint: don’t bet on your party surviving this. Once the now all but inevitable Republican sweep takes over the Congress, this mandate is dead and it just might take OSHA with it.
Republicans, not Democrats, now represent (kinda) the little guy – and there are a LOT of little guys. The Republicans will flood every poll with watchers so there won’t be a repeat of 2020. That means we’re likely to see a massive shift as the polls will be much more reliable, possibly than they have been in a couple decades in some places. Even if not, people are PO’d – and calling the soccer moms racists over the November 2 results probably just really sealed the deal – people are going to be voting for Republicans in record numbers.
Biden should have let this mandate die a slow, quiet death – instead he tossed it like gasoline on a bonfire. Desperate for a win, senile or just stupid, whatever the reason, Biden just doomed the Democrats and himself. If enough Republicans take office in 2023 we’ll probably see OSHA chopped into bloody bits as well. Whelp, what the heck, what’s one more impeachment?
Think I’m exaggerating? Get this – the ETS requires unvaccinated workers to submit weekly negative tests – but at no expense to the employer. Translation: worker expense. Could you afford weekly tests? What if it’s not just a copay but the actual test expense? Because insurance through an employer is an employer expense, last I looked. Sure, many employers will try to find work arounds or actually absorb the expense – but a lot won’t be able to or will be too scared of this insane administration to try. Businesses can’t vote – but unfairly fired workers, their families and friends, they all can and likely will vote.
Just not for anything with a D near its name.
