But vaccine mandates are so broadly popular, they tell us. So what’s happening in the United States Senate where two Democratic Senators are set to jump the aisle and support a Republican resolution to permanently defund President Biden’s private employer vaccine mandate? It’s not just the Senate where Democrats are losing support, several big blue states have also quietly backed off threats of mandates in some instances as polling shows softening on the issue, specifically among Democratic voters.
Sen. Joe Manchin, of West Virginia, and Sen. Jon Tester, of Montana, Democrats both, are set to join the GOP on a resolution to defund Biden’s Covid vaccine mandate, and the vote could come as soon as today:
Tester is the second Senate Democrat to say he will support overturning Biden’s employer vaccine mandate under the Congressional Review Act (CRA).
Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) said last week that he would do so as well.
The Senate is expected to vote on the issue as soon as Wednesday, and it will pass with the support of Manchin and Tester, as every single Republican senator is planning to vote for the resolution.
“I’m not crazy about mandates,” Tester told a reporter for NBC News on Tuesday.
A spokesman for Tester confirmed that his boss is “inclined to vote for the CRA resolution” sponsored by his Republican colleagues.
Manchin announced his position last week after the Senate voted along party lines to defeat an amendment sponsored by Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) to prohibit federal funding for the implementation of Biden’s vaccine mandate.
That would be a serious blow to any political leverage the White House still had in pushing a vaccine mandate. They thought, or so it seems, that the only opposition was coming from Republican state leaders, like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. How wrong they were, with two prominent Democratic Senators now actively voicing opposition to Biden’s mandates, and also prepared to strip funding.
This move follows more grumblings from other Democrats around the country quietly speaking against broad federal mandates if not for the practical reason that they fear losing state employees:
In recent comments, several high-profile Democrats have stated their opposition to vaccine mandates, specifically applied to private businesses. The most recent Democratic lawmaker to voice her concern was Michigan Gov. GRETCHEN WHITMER. Once considered to be Biden’s vice president, Whitmer said she opposes mandates, citing the impact on the state’s workforce — as Michigan grapples with upticks in cases and residents are split on whether or not to get the vaccine.
“We’re an employer too, the state of Michigan is,” Whitmer said on Monday, according to the Daily News in Greenville. “I know if that mandate happens, we’re going to lose state employees. That’s why I haven’t proposed a mandate at the state level. Some states have. We have not, we’re waiting to see what happens in court.”
Whitmer isn’t alone as a Democratic governor pushing against Biden’s federal mandate. Believe it or not, the move isn’t playing well in New York or New Jersey either:
Gov. PHIL MURPHY (D-.N.J.), shortly before an unexpectedly close re-election win, shied away from embracing a strict vaccine mandate for teachers and other public workers. Gov. KATHY HOCHUL (D-N.Y.), who is running for election after taking over for disgraced former Gov. ANDREW CUOMO (D-N.Y.), has stated her opposition to a “broad-based mandate for all private-sector workers in New York.”
With blow after blow by federal judges around the country, every single Biden Covid vaccine mandate has now been put on hold indefinitely. This is leaving Democrats in a tough spot, of course, as they must defend this Biden policy despite souring public opinion, opposition within their own party, and a judiciary that has taken an extremely skeptical eye toward vaccine mandate by executive fiat:
The souring of some Democrats on the mandate comes as the courts strike legal blow after legal blow against a series of vaccine mandates President JOE BIDEN unveiled in September, and it’s prompting concerns in the party that they’re ending up with the worst of all worlds: a blunt policy that won’t go into effect but that will saddle them politically.
“On one hand, it’s just another thing added to the pile of shit that he’s already been dealing with,” a Democratic strategist told us. “On the other hand, it’s just one more front that he and his team are going to have to fight.”
This is another stunning reversal of misfortune for the terribly unpopular Biden-Harris administration. Not only have Biden’s mandates been systematically dismantled by the courts, but now prominent leaders in his own party are throwing him under the bus politically. It’s not just those evil vaccine-hating Republicans like Ron DeSantis that Biden is fighting against, now it’s three Democratic governors from deep-blue states that apparently are vaccine-haters as well.
You can’t make this stuff up. To be reading that the governors of New York, New Jersey, and Michigan, three of the most overly heavy-handed Covid-restriction states, oppose Biden’s federal vaccine mandates should be enough for Democrats everywhere to abandon the position. Then add in votes defunding the mandates from Tester and Manchin, what’s left for Biden on this front? Can’t blame Republicans forever.
