By a 222-212 vote, with Adam Kinzinger the only Republican to cross the aisle to vote with the Democratic caucus, the House passed a short term spending bill that would fund the federal government through February 18, 2022, the Washington Post reports.
The bill, which would avert a government shutdown effective Friday at midnight, will have a harder time passing the Senate, where GOP Senators vow to hold up its passage in protest to vaccine mandates supported by President Joe Biden. Far right Republicans claim vaccine mandates are unconstitutional and threaten Americans’ rights and jobs, even though vaccine mandates for other diseases have been in place for decades.
“We have seen in the course of this pandemic, Democrats being very comfortable with being petty tyrants and decreeing that you must obey their medical mandates,” said Senator Ted Cruz (R-Quintana Roo).
As the US economy shows signs of strengthening even as questions remain over the impact of the omicron variant of the coronavirus, Republicans feel shutting down the government and jeopardizing the incomes of hundreds of thousands of federal workers and the revenue of thousands of government contractors is the proper move to spur debate on Biden’s vaccine policy that a clear majority of Americans favor.
According to a recent poll, only 39% of Americans do not feel an employer vaccine mandate should be required.