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An Indiana senator leading a congressional fight against President Joe Biden’s proposed federal COVID-19 vaccine mandates said Wednesday he was against state-level efforts to block businesses from imposing their own workplace vaccination requirements.
Republican U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, who owns a Jasper-based auto parts distribution company, told reporters he didn’t believe in government mandates requiring or prohibiting actions by businesses.
“Individuals and businesses should have that decision to make on their own,” Braun said. “I understand the desire to do it. I’m a little apprehensive on that happening simply because of what it might mean to where you try to impact businesses in their own decisions on other issues down the road.”
That stance puts Braun at odds with many Republican state lawmakers who are backing a measure that would force Indiana businesses to accept broad exemptions for religious or medical reasons from employees to any workplace vaccination requirements.
An effort for fast-track approval of that prohibition failed last month, but an Indiana House committee is set to hold a public hearing on it Dec. 16 and the Legislature could take action on it once the new legislative session starts Jan. 4.
Republican Gov. Eric Holcomb has opposed limiting the actions of private employers and several business and medical groups have argued against it.
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Behold a Republican who thinks he can split the baby and it will work out.
The Indiana GOP is ready to not just prohibit businesses from mandating vaccinations, but leading candidate for Governor Todd Rokita is running around saying that it’s time re-evaluate ALL vaccinations for kids.
And there are a lot more folks like Rokita than Braun in the legislature.
The inmates have taken over the asylum. This is what happens when you try to accommodate crazy instead of banishing it to the hinterlands where it belongs.
Or, as the meme says, “‘I never thought leopards would eat MY face’, sobbed the woman who voted for the Leopards Eating People’s Faces party.”
To some extent it surely reflects a coldly cynical political calculation. Voters tend to blame whichever party holds the White House for anything bad that happens on its watch, which creates an incentive for a sufficiently ruthless party to engage in outright sabotage.
It’s been the Republican way since 2009, they get rewarded for obstruction every time.
No, the federal government should set criteria and guidelines for this ongoing heath and safety crisis. Braun is wrong, misguided, and grandstanding. Useless, sad, and sick (no pun) considering the dreadful state of infections in Indiana.