As a bill to prohibit vaccine passports appears to have stalled in the Arizona Legislature, Congressman Biggs this week introduced his No Vaccine Passports Act to prevent federal agencies from issuing any standardized documentation that could be used to certify a U.S. citizen’s COVID-19 status to a third party, such as a restaurant or an airline.
Biggs’ bill follows a report that the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is encouraging vaccine providers to push people to share their personal health and vaccination data through their smartphones. Healthcare professionals and civil rights activists are now that surveillance system could be used to create a vaccine passport.
“I am profoundly disturbed that the Biden Administration would even consider imposing vaccine passports on the American people. My private healthcare decisions—and yours—are nobody else’s business,” said Biggs. “Vaccine passports will not help our nation recover from COVID-19; instead, they will simply impose more Big Brother surveillance on our society.
Biggs applauded Florida Governor Ron DeSantis “for being an early leader against vaccine passports at the state level. My No Vaccine Passports Act builds on his efforts and will further protect Americans’ privacy rights and fundamental freedoms.”
On Monday, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order prohibiting vaccine passports. Abbott said a system to track those who have been inoculated against COVID-19 infringes on citizens’ rights.
This is the correct direction to go. Medical records should always remain confidential. No one should ever have to show papers for private medical decisions made between you and your doctor. #VaccinePassport#covidhttps://t.co/qpIAvvpGav
— Attorney General Ken Paxton (@KenPaxtonTX) April 6, 2021
Arizona State Rep. Bret Roberts has proposed the state-level bill to prohibit vaccine passports. The bill has stalled due to the efforts of at least one lawmaker who believes private businesses should be allowed to require them.
Democrats have become far too comfortable with controlling you. For many of them, COVID-19 has been a power grab, seizing the opportunity to enact emergency orders and implement other restrictions on your freedom.
They’ve crushed restaurants and other businesses with severe limits and unnecessary closures. They’ve instituted illogical curfews (because apparently the virus only comes out at night). And most recently, Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego closed parking lots and grills at Phoenix parks during Easter weekend. Maybe Mayor Gallego should’ve read the guidance from the CDC that says being outdoors is safer than being indoors if you plan to celebrate with others. But no. Despite Governor Ducey’s call for all Arizona parks to remain open during Easter weekend, she decided it was better to play a game of politics.
The draconian measures need to go. But too many government officials around our state are still fighting back against reopening. And nowhere is that more obvious than with the left’s beloved mask mandates, which have been nothing but divisive without any data to back them up.
But right now, a bill sits on the governor’s desk that can end this once and for all. HB2770, sponsored by Rep. Joseph Chaplik (R-LD23) and dubbed the “mask freedom bill,” passed the Arizona State Senate last week. It simply asserts that a business is not required to enforce a state, city, town, county, or other jurisdiction’s mask mandate on the business’s premises.
This is a commonsense solution. It allows people to exercise their freedom while removing the burden from businesses to play mask police. So, naturally, the Democrats voted against it. Not a single one voted for the bill throughout the entire process. Apparently, the left would rather cling to their power than follow the science. Just ask State Senator Martin Quezada (D-LD29), who voted against the bill despite his excessive need to cross-contaminate his own mask by touching it 22 times in three minutes.
It’s time to return to normalcy and put an end to this foolishness. Businesses need to be protected, and citizens should be treated like responsible adults who can decide what’s best for them. That’s what it means to live in a free country.
Now, it all comes down to the pen of Governor Ducey. He showed a desire to do what’s right a few weeks ago by temporarily lifting mask mandates throughout Arizona. And he can make it permanent by signing the mask freedom bill. The process to reopen has been well underway. Governor Ducey should follow the science and finish the job.
PHOENIX – On Thursday, Governor Doug Ducey appointed the first woman to commander of the Arizona National Guard. Brigadier General Kerry L. Muehlenbeck will replace Maj. Gen. Michael McGuire as the new Adjutant General and Director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs (DEMA).
McGuire announced his retirement on March 5, 2021. He served as Director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs and Adjutant General since 2013, and will officially retire on April 10, 2021.
“General Muehlenbeck’s impressive military experience and continued leadership are amplified by her legal and teaching background. She joined the Arizona Air National Guard in 1997 and served in many roles until she became Arizona’s Deputy Adjutant General in 2018. I look forward to working with General Muehlenbeck on protecting Arizonans, supporting our communities, and tackling the challenges ahead,” said Ducey.
Muehlenbeck served as the Deputy Adjutant General and the Director of Administrative Services. She was responsible for oversight of: the United States Property and Fiscal Office (USPFO); the State Risk Management Office; State Purchasing and Contracting; the State and Federal Human Resource Offices; the Public Affairs Office; the Office of the Inspector General; the General Counsel, the Tribal Liaison; the Legislative Liaison; the Sexual Assault Response Coordinator; the State Equal Employment Manager; and the Ordnance and Industrial operations within the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs. She also served as the Adjutant General’s delegate.
“I’m proud to have the opportunity to serve our great state as Adjutant General and Director of the Arizona Department of Emergency and Military Affairs,” said Muehlenbeck. “Having served and taught for years, I look forward to leading Arizona DEMA and the Arizona National Guard to help protect and support Arizona communities. It is an honor to succeed General McGuire after his years of admirable service, and I’m grateful to Governor Ducey for this tremendous opportunity.”
Muehlenbeck is currently a professor at Mesa Community College’s Administration of Justice Studies Department, where she also serves as Department Chair. She taught at Arizona State University between 2002 and 2014, specializing in crime, criminology, justice and social inquiry. Muehlenbeck was also an adjunct professor for the Criminal Justice Department at American Military University in West Virginia from 2009 to 2013 and for Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University from 1995 to 2001.
Prior to teaching, Muehlenbeck served as deputy county attorney at the Pima County Attorney’s Office from 1998 to 2001. In this role, she prosecuted felony offenders in superior court. She also served as an assistant prosecuting attorney for the Saginaw County Prosecutor’s Office from 1992 to 1993 and Assistant Staff Judge Advocate at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base from 1993 to 1997.
America has a border wall that is very efficient at keeping out intruders. It hasn’t been breached once in over three months.
Unfortunately, it protects only our political elites at the US Capitol, who are under minimal threat. Other Americans must make do with a wall that is highly porous, that leaks multitudes of illegal immigrants daily, including everything from petty criminals making life miserable for border residents to murderous cartel members.
Americans not living in a cave know we have a hot mess on our southern border. Fired up by Biden‘s not-so-subtle invitation to come in, hordes of migrants began forming caravans even before his inauguration.
175,000 immigrants in March alone overwhelmed border patrol agents, with unknown additional numbers sneaking across. Overcrowded facilities at the border are so deplorable that even reporters and congressmen are denied access.
Worse, 20,000 unaccompanied minors were in custody at last count. From the appearance of their accommodations, kids in cages are back big time.
Economic migration of would-be breadwinners has been replaced by families and children, because of an inane policy requiring all minors who present at the border to be automatically admitted. The Biden administration claims to be strictly enforcing immigration laws, but only 10 of 20 percent are refused admission.
The majority of illegal immigrants are released into the US population with status pending a court date far in the future. “Asylum-seekers“ rarely prevail in court. Understandably, few risk deportation by showing up.
Meanwhile, busloads of migrants empty out into hapless desert towns like Ajo and Gila Bend, which have absolutely no capability to provide the (free) food and accommodations expected. Some are sent to military bases where the US Armed Forces are deployed to care and provide for them. Migrants not admitted construct tent cities at the border and feel entitled to refuse to move until their “demands“ are met.
This is clearly a humanitarian crisis and a serious security threat. Even some leaders of the immigrants’ home countries object. Yet the response of the Biden administration has been a preternatural calmness.
They have made no effort to prevent the masses from coming. They spent great amounts of political capital on avoiding the word “crisis“ to describe the crisis. They have worked hard to keep us from knowing or seeing the ghastly details.
They have contended that it’s “Trump’s fault”, which is truly laughable. Border crossings were controlled during his tenure. All hell broke loose only when they foolishly reversed the previous administration’s policies.
To control the debacle, Biden appointed his VP. But Kamala Harris has so far not even attempted to appear interested, literally laughing at the suggestion that she might even visit the border.
But c’mon man. There is only one explanation that makes any sense: Democratic dreams of millions of new easily controlled voters. Where reasonable people see uneducated, low-skilled workers who broke our law, don’t speak our language and have no intention of sharing our history and values, Democrat leaders see future Democrats. No price is too great to pay in pursuit of an assured political future.
The suffering at the border is of no apparent concern. Known terrorists and cartel members slipping in? Children found abandoned in the desert? Unfair competition with American workers in a tight market for low-end labor? None of it matters.
The only point of the drill is to somehow get these future Dems physically into the country. Then nothing happens when they skip their court hearings, get “papers“ for jobs and government benefits and over-run welfare and justice systems.
Before long we’ll be hearing amnesty is the only possible course because, like the DACA recipients, they have been here for so long, they know no other home, there are too many to send back, blah, blah. An undemanding “pathway to citizenship“ will be the only humane solution. We’ll probably be promised enhanced border security (again) if we go along.
Up to 20 million illegal aliens already live in the US. Biden’s number is for 2 million more per year. America is a welcoming country that wants and needs a sound immigration system. We just don’t need this one.
Dr. Thomas Patterson, former Chairman of the Goldwater Institute, is a retired emergency physician. He served as an Arizona State senator for 10 years in the 1990s, and as Majority Leader from 93-96. He is the author of Arizona’s original charter schools bill.
President Biden is proposing to finance his infrastructure spending proposal by increasing the corporate income tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent. What difference will that make?
If there is one thing that virtually all economists are united about, it is this: corporations don’t pay the corporate income tax.
