Biden's Smoke and Mirrors: Where's That Vaccine Mandate on Businesses With 100-Plus Employees?

Nick Arama reporting for RedState

You may recall that on September 9, Joe Biden announced that he was essentially ordering a vaccine mandate for every business with over 100 employees, by using OSHA to have a new rule requiring it. Why? Because COVID was such an immediate threat that this just had to be done.

“The ultimate workaround,” some in media called that, while crowing about it, although others said there were likely significant legal and practical problems with going this route. This, despite the Biden Administration previously saying they wouldn’t do such a thing and that it really wasn’t within their power to do it.

But now, a month later, we see once again the upside-down nature of the way the Biden Administration does things. What happened to that new rule? It’s still not been put into effect, as I mentioned in a prior story (Oct. 3).

What happened to it? NY Times reporter Lauren Hirsch, who covered Biden during his visit to Illinois on Thursday highlighting his push for vaccine mandates, reported that the OSHA rule was still likely several weeks away, despite Biden’s claim that it would be put in place quickly.

Now, normally you figure out all the legal questions — at least as much as you can — before you make the announcement that you’re going to put something into effect. Doing it this way is like removing the military from Afghanistan before you get out the people you have to get out — doing things backwards. How is this acting immediately?

It’s a completely confused way to do things. Assuming your aim was to actually get it done. Now, maybe the point was just to try to stampede people into mandating it themselves without having to deal immediately with the legal challenges. But of course as with anything Biden, that leaves people in confusion.

Some companies, like IBM, are still being hesitant, if they don’t even know what the actual parameters of the rule are supposed to be, so they’re still waiting. But, if this was all just for show or to duke businesses into doing it themselves, that would be Biden being deceptive yet again, wouldn’t it? So, take your pick with Biden — incompetence and/or deception.

But there’s a greater problem with all this, as well, even if you actually supported such a thing. OSHA doesn’t begin to have the ability to really police such a thing, as even NPR observes.

According to OSHA, there are about 1,850 federal and state inspectors covering some 8 million worksites nationwide.

“So you can do the math,” Fairfax says. “They clearly can’t go into every one.”

NPR does suggest that employees can always fink on their fellow employees or businesses. How nice.

But, this is Joe Biden. He tends to say one thing and then do another — and then we’re left with the mess that results.