Does Constitutional Government Still Matter? Or Can Unelected Bureaucrats Unilaterally Crown Themselves Our Healthcare Emperors and Demand that We, their Subjects, Obey their Decrees?
Americans from coast-to-coast are applauding U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY) because he is going to force a vote on his resolution to repeal travel mask mandates on public transportation and airplanes. The science is clear, mask mandates have not saved lives and have not slowed the spread. Yet, despite the clear evidence from the last two years, many continue to insist on mask mandates. Curiously, these were some of the loudest and most shrill voices demanding that Americans follow the science — yet, they now clearly defy and ignore the science.
Thankfully, Sen. Paul, also a medical doctor, is requiring government to be accountable and be reasonable. While many in government seek to use fear and demagoguery to keep Americans worked up and living in fear, it is clearly time to learn to live with COVID and mitigate its impact. But the insistence on perpetual COVID mandates and the fear mongering and threats of mandates do nothing to save lives or improve health. Senator Paul’s resolution to repeal travel mask mandates on public transportation and airplanes can be found HERE.
If requiring people to perpetually wear masks is a good idea, why not follow the constitutional process of law-making? Why not ask Congress, the people’s representatives, to vote on it? It is stunning that for almost two years, Americans have been forced to follow the baseless edicts of bureaucrats and over-zealous executives. But not once have those supporting mandates followed the constitutional process of voting on proposed laws in the legislature and then asking the executive to sign the law into effect. And no one exercising (or actually abusing) these powers has bothered to explain where in the Constitution, the government has the power to issue all these so-called healthcare mandates. And they also don’t bother to explain why their mandates are needed or supported by the data.
It is time for this abuse of power to stop and for Congress to vote. While we do not believe that the Federal government has the legal authority to force Americans to wear masks, it is certainly well within Congress’ purview to put an end to abuses of federal power and usurpations of constitutional power. And we thank Sen. Rand Paul for seeing to it that Congress at least goes on record as whether constitutional government still matters or whether unelected bureaucrats can simply crown themselves healthcare emperors and hand out edicts that their subjects must follow.