Joe Biden seems to believe that the only way to accomplish his goals in the limited time left before the midterms is by ignoring federal judge. He’s instructed businesses to ignore the stay handed down from the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Saturday halted workers being vaccinated prior to Jan. 4. This order will ostensibly have the Federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversee it.
While ignoring a federal court’s decision is egregious enough, let’s focus on the second part, where OSHA will ultimately be in charge of enforcing the vaccine mandate. Turns out, the Biden administration will be relying heavily on Americans to enforce it — by turning each other in. It could be, as Jon Gabriel from Ricochet put it in Twitter:
Biden arming a Karen army https://t.co/UWXayKrOqW
— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) November 9, 2021
OSHA, it seems, is aware they’re not capable of the manpower needed to police all businesses over 100 employees who will be affected by the mandate (and, let’s face it, they may not have the appetite for it but that’s just my opinion) so they will be relying on the age old tactic of using employees to turn in their employers for violating the edicts of the The Man. This is a disgruntled story as old as the time.
[T]he government will rely upon a corps of informers to identify violations of the order: Employees who will presumably be concerned enough to turn in their own employers if their co-workers go unvaccinated or fail to undergo weekly tests to show they’re virus-free.
What’s not known is just how many employees will be willing to accept some risk to themselves — or their job security — for blowing the whistle on their own employers. Experts say it would be difficult for the government to reach its goals of mandating that all workers in companies employing 100 employees or more be fully vaccinated or tested every week and use a mask while on the job.
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“There is no army of OSHA inspectors that is going to be knocking on employers door or even calling them,” said Debbie Berkowitz, a former OSHA chief of staff who is a fellow at Georgetown University’s Kalmanovitz Initiative for Labor and the Working Poor. “They’re going to rely on workers and their union representatives to file complaints where the company is totally flouting the law.”
Jim Frederick, the acting chief of OSHA, told reporters that this agency will focus on job sites “where workers need assistance to have a safe and healthy workplace.”
“That typically comes through in the form of a complaint,” Frederick added.
It’s a pretty shabby move — positively Dickensian; just in time for Christmas — to make already suffering people rat each other out to increase their comfort, even just a little bit. What choice has Grandpa Joe? His wins aren’t really piling up the way the progressives he’s shilling for had hoped, and the vaccine mandate is about as popular as working on Christmas Day (to borrow again from Dickens).
It’s so unpopular, in fact, that the backlash to the announcement he was actually going to try and go through with the cursed thing was swift and as popular as the mandate was unpopular.
[W]Given the number of lawsuits against the administration, it is uncertain whether businesses will be forced to take action. The rule published by the Occupational Health and Safety Administration has been sued by more than twenty-six states and businesses. Overreach in government authority
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Among the arguments put forth by states and businesses: OSHA does not have the legal authority to issue a rule to address a society-wide health concern, and even if reducing the risk of COVID-19 “remains a compelling interest,” it is not necessarily a “grave danger” as OSHA has declared it to be. Plaintiffs question also the timing of OSHA’s rule. It was issued more than one year and a half after the pandemic. However, many employers already have safety measures in place, while Covid cases are declining.
Nearly all the states suing Biden are headed by Republicans. However, Kansas Governor Laura Kelly is a Democrat. Friday, she posted a statement saying that although she was grateful for the desire to ensure worker safety, it was not possible to enforce a federal standard.
If he really wants to wreck the holiday season, it looks like Scrooge will need to marshal his army of Karens. It’s up to Americans to decide if they want to enlist.
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