Like President Biden, Tennessee Republicans create private sector COVID-19 mandates | Opinion

There was a time when Tennessee’s Republicans were skeptical of government controlling business. That was a pandemic ago.

Waging war against President Joe Biden’s COVID-19 mandates, too many Republicans are now worshiping at the altar of government power to secure their political priorities.

Many of them seem to have forgotten that free markets and individual liberty make America great. Weakening those principled cornerstones for short-term political gains isn’t wise, let alone conservative.

In the most recent special session, Republicans in the Tennessee legislature pushed through a COVID-19 mask and vaccine omnibus. Some of it was reasonable. For example, parents should absolutely have control over the vaccination decisions of their minor children.

Triggering unemployment benefits for individuals who lose their jobs due to vaccine mandates makes sense. Keeping the government out of a doctor’s judgment to prescribe monoclonal antibodies is excellent.

But there’s a major fly in the legislature’s COVID-19 ointment: Businesses should be able to decide how to handle COVID-19 and live with the consequences.

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How Republicans have lost their way

Even as health information is considered, state or federal government vaccine mandates are a purely political decision. The question isn’t about the efficacy of vaccines but rather whether governments should force the issue as a matter of public health. Tennesseans have broadly rejected that idea.

The opposite appears to be the case on the national level based on the political party in power. Biden likely has the authority to require COVID-19 vaccines on the federal workforce and through federal contracting requirements.

Preventing those mandates requires federal legislation which simply won’t happen in the current political context.

Where state and federal governments disagree on such mandates, we sort the issue out in the courts. If the federal government has the authority to issue a mandate, it will trump state law based on the Constitution’s Supremacy Clause.

This is where many Republicans have lost their way. Since they don’t have political control over Washington, D.C., they’re willing to use the force of the state government against private businesses to fight back against political opponents.

In the process, they’re treating the livelihoods of many Tennesseans as political pawns. If the federal mandates stand, businesses prevented by state law from requiring vaccinations will lose federal contracts which can and will cost jobs for vaccinated and unvaccinated alike.

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GOP created two classes of businesses

The irony is that the new Tennessee COVID-19 legislation includes a ham-handed exemption process for businesses fortunate enough to have federal contracts. Employers large enough to have federal contracts put in jeopardy by the new legislation need not comply if they can secure an exemption.

Republicans created two classes of businesses, those shielded by connection with the federal government and the rest. Tennessee legislators essentially exempt the reach of Biden’s federal mandate while creating their own government mandate for everyone else.

With respect to those businesses who don’t have a federal conflict exemption, the legislature went for the jugular. Not only did they open them up to private lawsuits foreclosed under the Tennessee COVID-19 Recovery Act, but the legislature also permits the attorney general to claw back any state funding the offending private company might have received in the fiscal year where a violation occurs.

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This isn’t conservatism. It’s swamp politics.

Under the guise of protecting Tennesseans from President Joe Biden, legislators are behaving exactly like him. Biden’s doing what he believes is politically popular on the national level, and Tennessee legislators have done the same in the state.

Both are using government funding and power to impose mandates on businesses. Limited government and free market principles are lost in the frothy outrage against masks and vaccines.

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Government taking choices away from business is wrong

Many state Republicans are crowing about substituting their political judgment for the reasoned decisions of private employers. While many employers wouldn’t feel comfortable requiring employee vaccinations, a different employer could absolutely reach the opposite conclusion. Taking that choice away by government force is wrong.

While businesses should decide the vaccine policies which are best for their customers and employees, the consequences of that decision remain quite significant. America is experiencing a national labor shortage. Quality employees have far more options than they have had in a long time.

Employers who aren’t cautious and thoughtful face labor risks that may prove catastrophic to their business prospects. That’s as it should be. Markets are generally better at sorting out workplace disagreements than politicians.

Workers who chose not to be vaccinated exercise a similar personal choice. No employer is tackling employees and jabbing them with needles. That’s already illegal. If the government is willing to protect one personal choice, it should protect the other even if it’s not as politically popular.

While the Tennessee Republicans passed a few worthwhile COVID-19 provisions in the recent special session, they erred by creating their own private sector COVID-19 mandates. Maintaining conservative principles is difficult in the face of political pressure, but, too often, well-intentioned expansions of government power become liberty’s greatest threats.

Columnist Cameron Smith is a recovering political attorney raising three boys in Nolensville, Tennessee, with his particularly patient wife, Justine. Direct outrage or agreement to smith.david.cameron@gmail.com or @DCameronSmith on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Tennessee Republicans, Biden create private sector COVID-19 mandates