Posted on 10/20/2021 6:43:33 AM PDT by Kaslin
As recently as late August, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said private businesses in his state were free to require that their employees be vaccinated against COVID-19. His press secretary explained that "private businesses don't need government running their business."
Abbott evidently reassessed that premise because last week, he issued an executive order that says "no entity in Texas can compel receipt of a COVID-19 vaccine by any individual, including an employee or a consumer." For anyone who genuinely cares about overweening government interference with free enterprise, Abbott's order is just as objectionable as the pending federal rule demanding that private companies with 100 or more employees require them to choose between vaccination and weekly coronavirus testing.
Abbott likes to brag about his state's "business-friendly climate." But even before last week's order, he was not prepared to let businesses decide for themselves how best to address COVID-19 hazards.
A state law that Abbott signed on June 16 says "a business in this state may not require a customer to provide any documentation certifying the customer's COVID-19 vaccination or post-transmission recovery on entry to, to gain access to, or to receive service from the business." Here is how Abbott explained his support for that law: "Texas is open 100 percent, and we want to make sure that you have the freedom to go where you want without limits."
That position sacrifices property rights and freedom of association on the altar of an unlimited "freedom" that has never been legally recognized: a customer's right to dictate the terms on which businesses offer products or services. By Abbott's logic, any business that proclaims "no shirt, no shoes, no service" or sets other rules for customers is thereby violating their freedom of movement.
The June 16 law still allowed businesses to require that their employees be vaccinated. But now Abbott has eliminated that option as well.
In principle, Abbott's order, which he asked the Texas legislature to codify, is no less outrageous than President Joe Biden's plan to dictate employers' vaccine policies through a "emergency temporary standard" issued by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. While Abbott accused Biden of "bullying" private employers, the governor is equally unwilling to tolerate deviation from the one business policy he thinks is best.
The conflict between the OSHA rule (which has not been published yet) and Abbott's decree puts Texas businesses in an uncomfortable position. Large employers can either listen to him, risking federal fines by defying OSHA, or ignore him, risking state fines by flouting one of the governor's "emergency" orders.
The Houston Chronicle reports that "major corporations based in Texas, including Southwest Airlines and American Airlines," said "they would abide by Biden's rules over Abbott's." What about the owners of smaller companies who have concluded that requiring vaccination makes good business sense? Abbott thinks their opinions don't matter.
"The COVID-19 vaccine is safe, effective, & our best defense against the virus, but should always remain voluntary & never forced," Abbott tweeted last week. But if someone is "forced" to do something whenever it is a condition of employment, all sorts of business decisions are ripe for second-guessing by politicians who deem them unfair or unreasonable.
"Texas is where liberty lives," Abbott's office says. "That's why the Lone Star State leads the nation in job creation over the last 10 years and in population growth over the last 14. As the 9th largest economy among the nations of the world, Texas offers a business-friendly climate -- with no corporate or personal income tax -- along with a highly skilled workforce, easy access to global markets, robust infrastructure and predictable regulations."
Those "predictable regulations" apparently include Abbott's unilateral ban on employee vaccination requirements, which came less than two months after he said such policies would be allowed. Despite what you might think, Abbott's idea of "liberty" clearly does not include the freedom to run your own business, unencumbered by arbitrary government edicts.
Didn’t realize Townhall.com had become a lefty rag, but I guess it did.
Say what?
I would say his EO doesn’t apply to businesses, but, then, Biden’s and OSHA’s aren’t legal, yet companies are using those to justify their vaccine mandate actions.
Companies don’t vote and laws should protect people and their property.
Rights are enshrined for humans, not companies.
So is it also “freedom” if I don’t hire Jews, blacks, Muslims, women, and midgets? Oh, and fat people since they disgust me…
We are not, and have never been, a free market economy.
This demonstrates the cluelessness of business-centered conservatives. It’s just as oppressive from the point of view of a corporation: you’re still being told what you can and cannot do by the state. In Texas, business are being told they can’t fire workers because you’re too cowardly to stand up to internal Karens. But EMPLOYEES are free to decide for themselves whether to wear a mask or not.
So according to this stooge at Townhall, telling businesses that they cannot FORCE people to get an experimental vaccine or DEMAND that they prove they’ve been “vaccinated” is somehow oppressive to the business.
Without Biden’s action Abbots would be unnecessary.
What Abbot appears to be doing is creating a legal issue between the State of Texas and the US Federal Government that can be used as a legal basis for a challenge to the Biden Vac mandate on 10th Amendment grounds
But you can always rely on Conservative Inc at Townhall to waste all their time and energy attacking their own rather then ever spending any time fighting the Leftists propaganda machine
Texas is doing what states are supposed to do; acting as a check on federal power.
On the news this morning, if going to a restaurant, people have to show vax card and ID to enter.
Isn’t that discrimination for poor people? Have to show ID with vax card to eat in a restaurant?
Unhappily, most large businesses are so in bed with the federal government - and so dominated by CA/NE USA for “leadership” - that individuals in states need their state government to protect them from out-of-state stupidity!
And here is a critical difference. NO ONE should be able to force you to inject stuff into your body against your morals and/or judgment as the price to go shopping, travel between states, etc.
Vaccines protect the ones who take it. So anyone who believes the vaccine works - as I do - is free to take it and be protected. Anyone who does not take it forgoes any protection it may or may not offer. But the unvaccinated pose NO RISK to the vaccinated!
Assuming of course the vaccine works. And if it doesn’t? Then NO ONE benefits.
Like the whole “You cannot turn a stallion into a mare by surgery” thing, this is an obvious reality!
Mr. Sullum, your thought processes are moronic and you are probably a Lincoln Project RINO/democrat which is the worst adjective one human can utter about another.
# 1, it is ok with most of us for a politician to see the light and change his/her/it’s mind which Abbott did and fairly quickly.
# 2, Abbott now has the right policy in place. Namely, Texas Business cannot force the jab on it’s employees.
correct, if the feds were not coercing business this would be entirely unnecessary but here we are.
This is insane.
NO ONE is telling a single person whether they must or must not get vaccinated other than the left.
No one is squashing freedom except for the left.
Sullum is a frequent fencepost leftist posting on TH. Can’t stand his usually dreck.
Didn’t realize Townhall.com had become a lefty rag, but I guess it did.
~~~~
BS. When did authoritarian mandates against private institution become a conservative principle?
These wahh-wahh type articles always make me laugh.
NO ONE is telling a single person whether they must or must not get vaccinated other than the left.
~~~~
And no one else is lying about this issue more than you lunatics. This is about mandating the vaccination policies of private institutions. It is NOT about mandating whether private citizens must or must not get vaccinated.
It’s called “employment at will”. Private companies should be free to mandate that their employees get vaccinated or not, and advertise that to their customers. If an employee of a vaccine mandate company wants not to be vaccinated then he is free to work elsewhere. If an employee of a non-vaccine mandate company insists on working only with vaccinated employees then he is free to work elsewhere.
Corporate vaccine mandates in either direction are tyranny.
What if a private employer suddenly implemented a policy that all employees must take up smoking, and must smoke at least a couple of cigs on their breaks, verified by supervisors? Would you be okay with this?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.