Democrats in the Senate this week blocked a bill by Sen. Rick Scott, R-Fla., that would have prevented the government from mandating vaccines for those receiving a government check.
Today, I introduced several common sense bills prohibiting vaccine mandates for Americans to receive government benefits like Social Security, food assistance, Medicare & Medicaid & housing assistance. Democrats blocked them. (1/6)?
— Rick Scott (@SenRickScott) October 19, 2021
“Democrats today said they are willing to revoke your social security checks, take away health care for the poor, elderly and vulnerable children, kick folks out of their homes and deny needed food assistance—all because of a personal medical decision to not receive a vaccine,” Scott said in a statement.
Scott, who is vaccinated, encouraged everyone to consider getting vaccinated after first talking to their doctor, but said it’s not the role of the federal government to force healthcare mandates on citizens.
Last week Scott and Republican Sens. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Mike Lee of Utah, Cynthia Lummis of Wyoming and Roger Marshall of Kansas introduced legislation that would have prevented vaccine mandates for anyone involved in interstate commerce.
Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, who is sponsoring the bill in the House, also slammed the Biden administration’s effort to force it upon citizens against their will.
“As lawmakers, what we need to do is educate the public in an honest way about the vaccine, and then allow them to make the choice for themselves,” Crenshaw said according to Florida Daily. “President Biden’s vaccine mandate is a cheap, unconstitutional overreach of governance and we will not stand by while it happens.”
Republicans and Democrats have clashed over vaccine mandates, with the GOP saying that vaccine mandates will take people out of the workforce and cause more hardship for Americans than any possible benefit that forcing a vaccine on people could accrue.
Democrats, desperate to take credit for ending the pandemic after a year of grandstanding on the issue, see forced vaccines as the only answer.
“Biden’s latest vaccine mandate for private companies tramples on the personal freedoms of Americans, will push more workers out of the workforce, devastate our economy with product and service shortages that cripple supply chains and throw America into a stagflation crisis not seen since the 1970’s,” Scott told Fox News.
