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It seems there’s only one mandate the Utah Legislature actually likes: That is that every time a Democratic president does something, they are legally bound to react with some ill-conceived, slapdash grandstanding response that fails to do what they think it will and has significant unintended consequences.
This special session is no exception.
This time it’s President Joe Biden’s so-called vaccine mandate that has Senate Majority Assistant Whip Kirk Cullimore and House Majority Leader Mike Schultz scrambling for their Big Bag of Bad Ideas.
Their bill would bar employers from firing or taking “adverse action” against employees who refuse to get vaccinated. It provides exemptions for religious reasons, medical reasons or, as Republican Rep. Tim Hawkes aptly put it, because the employee says “I don’t wanna.”
Make no mistake, this is a heavy-handed mandate on employers aimed at blocking a heavy-handed mandate on employers. And it naturally is wildly popular with the fundamentalist Republican base, as evidenced by a hearing on the bill Tuesday (where they held the bill so Cullimore can work on it some more).
Brent Maxwell, president of Precision Systems Engineering, Inc., for example, asked, “Should we give the unvaccinated a star to wear on their clothes” and ban them from public gatherings?
Because a swab up the nose is obviously exactly the same as the Holocaust.
Another upset individual insisted that nothing says the government can say what business can or can’t do.
Nothing, unless that business wants to require employees to be vaccinated.
However, the philosophical inconsistency is the least of the problems with Cullimore’s proposal.
Before I get into all that, let me be clear: Vaccines work. Everyone should get vaccinated. The vaccines save lives and you should go get one today, if you haven’t already. Period.
That is especially true for medical providers who work with frail patients or others who interact with vulnerable populations. But I am also sensitive to those uneasy with the government compelling large swaths of people to put something in their bodies that they don’t want.
That said, the Biden policy is not a vaccine mandate. It does not require anyone to get the shots. It is a testing mandate, that says employees should be tested weekly unless they are vaccinated. That’s it.
Cullimore’s bill, remember, would prohibit employers from firing employees who won’t get vaccinated, but is silent on whether unvaccinated employees can be fired for refusing to be tested. So it likely doesn’t solve the problem he hopes it does.
It also doesn’t address federal contractors required to be vaccinated or anyone who works for an employer that receives Medicare and Medicaid funding, which is also good because, if anyone should be vaccinated, it’s them.
More problematic, even from a small government Republican perspective, is that — contrary to the opinion of some — it does, indeed, tell businesses what they can or can’t do.
So I talked to someone who runs a business — Jeff Miller, CEO of Mark Miller Subaru — about his experience with getting workers vaccinated. About two months ago his company began requiring employees to be tested if they hadn’t had the vaccine.
At the same time they offered $100 incentives to get the shots and did a lottery in the store where one lucky vaccinated winner won $1,000. Now 86% of the employees have been vaccinated, while the rest agree to be tested weekly. One employee quit.
“If someone isn’t willing to get vaccinated and isn’t willing to get tested, that’s probably the person who is going to come in with Covid,” Miller said, and that is bad for business. “Our goal is to protect our employees and protect our customers. We just don’t want anyone to end up in the hospital.”
But does Miller have a testing mandate? Or is it a vaccine mandate?
Well, if it’s simply a testing mandate, then Cullimore’s bill doesn’t touch it. Nor does it impact the Biden mandate that has these supposed conservatives so riled up.
If it is considered a vaccine mandate, contrary to all logic, then Cullimore’s bill seeks to impose another mandate on every business in the state with more than 15 employees.
And that leads to another problem — and another level of hypocrisy in Republican doctrine.
Because Utah is an “at-will employment” state. That means you, as a worker, have no rights. You can be fired at any time, for any reason — or really for no reason whatsoever — as long as it’s not because the you’re part of a federally protected class based on religion, race, gender, disability and so forth.
This has been sacred gospel to Republicans, an oath of eternal vigilance against workers’ rights.
So Cullimore wants to shield employees from being fired for being unvaccinated? The employer can still fire that employee because of his or her shoes. Or hair. Or for liking Aaron Rodgers and Joe Rogan. Or for no reason at all.
There’s a good chance the bill will result in litigation that we, as taxpayers, will all pay for and the state will lose.
So after all of this, we end up exactly where we began: A Republican Legislature making useless laws that violates their supposed political principles and will likely land the state in court, all to score cheap political points.
But this is how it goes, because doing the politically expedient but fundamentally unprincipled thing is the only mandate the Utah Legislature can get behind.