Congressional #DeathWishCaucus Pushes Anti-Vaccine Federal Shutdown

You knew it would eventually happen: the science-denying congressional Death Wish Caucus is seeking to shut down the Federal Government in the midst of a pandemic to stop any federal vaccine mandates because… freedom? To die, I guess?

Anyhow, you just knew that several of the signatories to this death pact would be congresscritters from Arizona: Paul Gosar, Andy Biggs, and… David Schweikert? Oh, David, I thought you were at least a little bit not an unprincipled demagogue. I’ll have to update my political calculus now that you are fighting to grab a nomination in CD 1. And no Debbie Lesko?… yet, anyway, which is a bit of a surprise.

Here’s a copy of the letter:

Notice how narrow their stated basis has become? They are objecting to COVID vaccine mandates because they “do not control the spread of the virus”? Not because of the myths regarding harmful side effects; there are none. Not because they are ineffective at saving lives; they do. And not because they mark you with the number of beast, turn you into a non-human, secretly give you COVID, or inject you with 5G wireless tracking chips, or any other conspiracy nonsense; they can’t be seen to be promoting such crap in the public record.

So now they merely claim that the vaccines don’t stop the spread of the virus. Reducing infections was hoped for from the vaccines but never claimed as a goal or requirement, nor as a reason for vaccine mandates. Even so, there is substantial evidence that the vaccines actually do reduce the chance of infection. But most importantly, the COVID vaccines are solidly proven to dramatically reduce serious outcomes, including hospitalization and death. Saving lives is the whole point of the vaccines and mandates. But the Death Wish Caucus don’t mention that simple fact, of course.

The Death Wishers also lie when they claim “the Biden administration has unilaterally imposed five separate COVID-19 vaccine mandates.” Untrue. Those mandates were all pursuant to grants of authority in the enabling acts for OSHA and Medicare and Medicaid, as limited by acts such as the ADA and ACA. Congress fully authorized those mandates, but our activist Death Wish wing of the Supreme Court significantly and arbitrarily narrowed their prior interpretations of those laws, partially rolling back those mandates, merely to give the Biden Administration a political black eye.

So the Death Wish Caucus takes another stab at killing any effective response to a deadly pandemic that is still killing 2K-3K Americans a day. Is anyone surprised by this anymore? Or have we just accepted that the GOP has become the party of human sacrifice?

The Death Wish Caucus is hard at work here in Arizona, as well. They’ve introduced state legislation, HB 2043, passed out of committee on a party-line vote, that would impose fines of $500,000 per violation on any business seeking to keep their employees and customers safe, in a clear effort to drive anyone who disagrees with them into bankruptcy. So much for the pro-business GOP: the only thing they are ‘Pro’ on anymore is death, suffering, and disability to the American people in fealty to their anti-science misinformation campaign against public health.

Once a political party turns against rational, science-based public health measures, what insanity will they not sign on for? In days gone by reactionary elites could pogrom the Jews, lynch blacks or burn witches to propitiate their hungry gods and enforce their rule through terror. Thankfully, our elites no longer have such options. Deprived of the ability to target and sacrifice the lives of ‘others’ to enforce their social dominance, the GOP is now sacrificing their own to extend their power and control.

They must be repudiated and turned out of power to stop their steep descent into madness and fascism. There is no other way to stop the GOP’s derangement other than removing any power from their grasp until they come back to their senses and drive out the demon (Beelzechub) that has driven them (almost) all mad.