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The Biden administration warned America yesterday that OSHA has issued an "emergency temporary standard" (ETS), which imposes vaccine and testing requirements on private businesses with over 100 employees.
And if you don't comply, the fines are staggering---up to $136,532, specifically to enforce government-mandated compliance or else.
The president says it goes into effect January 4, 2022---he doesn't want to start enforcement during Christmas.
This is about much, much more than a shot.
Be informed, not misled.
President Biden's administration warned yesterday, there will be "planned inspections" and heavy fines---up to $136,532-- to ensure businesses comply with his new coronavirus vaccine mandate set to take effect January 4.
A senior Biden official told reporters yesterday about their planned enforcement measures prior to leveling an "Occupational Safety and Public Health Administration" requirement for businesses with over 100 employees to get them vaccinated for the virus or test unvaccinated employees weekly and require them to wear masks.
Employers face a standard penalty of $14,000 per violation, which could escalate if they refuse to be compliant. Willful or repeated violations of the rule could cost as much as $136, 532.
A Biden official said, "For example, if we identify that an employer is willfully violating a standard, then that penalty is significantly higher than a workplace that is not willfully doing so."
Apparently, the government will discern the motives of each business owner.
The official said, "The bottom line is: vaccination requirements work. And the actions we're taking...will lead to millions of Americans getting vaccinated...and help accelerate our path out of this pandemic."
Slave labor also works. So does China's Communism. And Singapore's flogging. Does that make it right?
In the mind of the progressive, the end always justifies the means. If it works for "the agenda," it's right.
I am not advocating for or against getting vaccinated. I am strongly advocating for people to have the right to choose whether or not they get the shots.
Why is the right to choose sacred to the left regarding abortion, but dismissed and penalized regarding the shot?
The New Testament talks about this kind of thinking.
"A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways" (James 1:8).
A good part of the instability Americans---and the world---sense in US leadership today is a result of progressivism that is rooted in relativism rather than fixed Truth.
So-called "progressives" have no absolutes. Many of them embrace the Bible as long as they can twist Scripture and bend Truth to support their agenda---but they never forge an agenda based on biblical Truth.
This should not be a foreign concept to any US leader. Our Founders openly looked to God's Word when drafting our founding documents, creating our legal system, and even setting up our three branches of government.
On July 23, during a press briefing, a reporter asked White House Sec. Jen Psaki if she believed the government should step in and issue mandates related to the shots.
Psaki, at the time, dismissed the idea. She said, "Well, I think the question here---one, that's not the role of the federal government; that is the role that institutions, private sector entities, and others may take."
She dismissed the whole idea that government should take on the role of forcing private businesses to mandate coronavirus vaccines.
Yet, months later, Biden did just that. During a divisive speech in September, the president scolded the unvaccinated while announcing his decision to instruct the US Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) to develop a rule forcing private businesses with over 100 employees to mandate the vaccine or implement weekly testing requirements.
He said, "We've been patient, but our patience is wearing thin. And your refusal has cost all of us."
Continuing he said, "This is not about freedom or personal choice."
If it isn't about freedom and personal choice, it would be because God-given freedom and personal choice have been usurped by a double-minded administration.
And then there's this from the president: "The bottom line: We're going to protect vaccinated workers from unvaccinated co-workers."
If that actually is the bottom line, our God-given rights have been vetoed by a radical left administration, led by a very unstable leader.
Beginning January 4 the "new rule" goes into effect. Those businesses that will be inspected first are those whose employees have complained that their employer hasn't done enough to protect them from their co-workers.
For the greater good?
It was an elderly Thomas Jefferson who wrote, "It is not by the consolidation or concentration of powers, but by their distribution, that good government is effected," as he looked back on a nation he had helped birth.
Jefferson never blinked on the issue of limited government. Nor should we.
He said, "A single step beyond the boundaries thus specially drawn around the powers of Congress is to take possession of a boundless field of power, no longer susceptible of any definition."
Across that boundary, tyranny lies in wait.
President Biden has either not read Jefferson's words, or is completely ignoring them. I suspect it's the latter. Or both.
He, along with his radical progressive Left colleagues, see every national challenge as an opportunity to advance the far-left agenda, not a problem to be solved---rather a crisis to exploit.
There is no boundary he will not breach to satisfy the far radical left---and it is not merely a "single step" he is rushing headlong into.
Ben Franklin was somewhat pessimistic about the survival of our Republic when faced with government overreach. He said, "The executive will be always increasing...till it ends in a monarchy."
The contest for America is not a political difference of opinion about policies, it's a contest of differing worldviews.
One view holds that our freedom and liberty are given by God and our elected government is tasked with protecting our God-given rights.
The other believes that government is the benevolent master, and is tasked with defining freedoms and distributing them according to the people's needs.
I suppose that was on Franklin's mind when he was stopped by a woman on the street of Philadelphia and asked, "What kind of government have you given us?"
Franklin replied: "A republic, if you can keep it."
Be Informed. Be Discerning. Be Vigilant. Be Engaged. Be Prayerful.