Further Additional Extending Government Funding Act
Floor Speech
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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I call up my amendment No. 4927 and ask that it be reported by number.
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Mr. CRUZ. Mr. President, I rise today to speak in opposition to the abuse of power we have seen with vaccine mandates.
Let me say that I emphatically support Senator Lee's amendment about which he just spoke.
President Biden's vaccine mandates are illegal. They have, in significant part, been struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court, and they are abusive.
When this pandemic began, Senators on both sides of the aisle gave passionate speeches about the heroes in our society--about the doctors and nurses risking their lives to keep us safe. Well, now, under this vaccine mandate, Democrats are firing doctors and nurses and then complaining that we have a shortage of doctors and nurses.
We have heard speeches about the heroes of our military men and women, and they undoubtedly are heroes. Yet, under President Biden's illegal vaccine mandates, this administration is preparing to fire soldiers and sailors and airmen and marines. This administration is preparing to fire Navy SEALs, who have spent decades training and fighting to defend this Nation, but because they will not submit to an arbitrary and illegal mandate, Democrats are preparing to fire them.
We have heard Members from both sides of the aisle give speeches about police officers and firefighters--the heroes of 9/11--who, on that tragic day, ran into the building while it was on fire instead out of the building while it was on fire. Yet, under these illegal vaccine mandates, Democrats are firing police officers and firefighters.
We are seeing airline flights canceled all over the country. Yet, under these illegal vaccine mandates, airline pilots and flight attendants and mechanics and ticket agents are being fired from their jobs.
Typically, when I fly back and forth to Houston, I fly either United Airlines or Southwest. United, the company, has an arbitrary policy wherein they are firing or putting on involuntary and unpaid leave any employee who refuses to get the vaccine. United is different from other airlines in that regard. They have done so because they want to curry favor with the Biden White House because United's CEO believes that making Democrats at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue happy is somehow in its best interests.
Without exaggeration, every single time I board a United plane, a pilot, a flight attendant, a ticket agent pulls me aside and says: Thank you. Thank you for standing up and fighting for my rights. Why the heck won't my CEO fight for my rights?
We are seeing blue State Governors and blue State mayors who realize that firing American heroes and forcing people to make healthcare decisions against their wishes is bad politics. We are seeing blue State Governors and blue State mayors backing down. Yet I fear we will see blue State Democrats in the Senate--many of whom are not on the ballot, two-thirds of whom are not on the ballot this November-- believing they can arbitrarily ignore the will of the people.
Just yesterday, the people of San Francisco--bright blue, leftwing San Francisco--voted out three members of the school board over their arbitrary and tyrannical COVID policies that shut down schools for a year. The vote was nearly 80 percent to throw them out. I would note, by the way, that their defense was, they said, that everybody voting against them was a White supremacist. These were closet Republicans, they said, in San Francisco. San Francisco voted 85 percent for Joe Biden, but apparently there are a bunch of closet Republicans there.
My Democratic colleagues are ignoring the will of the people and giving in to extreme partisan positions on COVID.
Any Democrat, particularly any Democrat on the ballot in November, ought to look to San Francisco, ought to look to the Virginia Governor's race, ought to look to the New Jersey Governor's race and realize the Democratic Party is out of step with the American people.
Senator Lee's amendment repeals the illegal and abusive vaccine mandates from President Biden.
My amendment is focused on an area that people, understandably, rightly, are deeply passionate about, which is stopping the vaccine mandates on children.
We have seen jurisdictions all over the country impose vaccine mandates and say to parents: If you want your child to go to school, either give the child the vaccine or you can't send your kid to school.
That is an absolute abuse of power.
The choice of the healthcare your kid gets ought to be the choice of the parents. If you want to vaccinate your children, that ought to be your choice; you ought to have the right. Yet we are seeing arrogant blue State Democrats across the country say to moms and dads: I don't care what your views are.
Indeed, the Democratic candidate for Governor of Virginia said quite brazenly: Parents should have no say in what is taught to their kids.
By the way, this is applying to children as young as 5 years old. We are, right now, in the District of Columbia. If a Member of Congress has children in the schools in DC, the District of Columbia is mandating you must vaccinate your 5-year-old whether you want to or not.
That is wrong.
My amendment is very simple. It cuts off Federal funds for any institution that forces a vaccine mandate on kids. There are nearly 81 million kids in America whose rights are in jeopardy.
The arrogance of these petty authoritarians' at-a-time-of-crisis character is revealed, and we are seeing petty authoritarians who say: Mom, you don't have the right to decide whether or not your 5-year-old, your 6-year-old, your 7-year-old will get this vaccine.
Who the heck do they think they are?
I repeat: If you want to vaccinate your kids, that is your right, and you should do so, but these petty tyrants have no right to force parents to vaccinate children with a new and untested vaccine.
Let me be clear. I am vaccinated--I am pro-vaccine--but I believe in individual choice. If you want to be vaccinated, fantastic, but it ought to be your choice in consultation with your doctor, and if you have kids, you ought to talk to your doctor and say: Hey, Doc, what does the evidence show about the impact on kids? You ought to have a real and candid conversation with your doctor, not with some political bureaucrat in Washington, DC, or in the State capitol or at city hall.
These mandates are wrong. They are wrong in every capacity but especially as it concerns kids.
I say to the petty tyrants--the same people, by the way, who shut down schools for a year. I mentioned a second ago the San Francisco school board. One of the school board members voted out by nearly 80 percent of the voters in San Francisco said--and I mentioned this--the people who voted against me and the people who want to open schools are White supremacists.
The millions of kids who have been hurt by school closures will be academically behind for the rest of their lives, and that harm has fallen disproportionately on low-income kids. It has fallen disproportionately on African-American kids. It has fallen disproportionately on Hispanic kids, and we have got a bunch of rich, White liberals saying to low-income minority kids: Well, tough luck. You don't get to go to school.
Mind you, many of those rich, White liberals can afford to send their kids to private schools so their kids keep getting educated, but the low-income kids are out of luck.
Then, in this ``Alice in Wonderland'' world we live in, arrogant leftists say: If you want schools open--if you want African-American kids and Hispanic kids to be able to go to school and learn to read and learn to write and learn math and history and science and art and climb the economic ladder and have a chance at the American dream--and if you want minority kids to have a chance to succeed, you are a White supremacist.
Anyone listening to those words understands why the American people are angry.
I pray that, in just a few minutes, the Senate does the right thing and rational thing. These votes, in any sane world, should be 100 to nothing. We should stand for people's individual rights, individual liberties. We should stand against petty tyrants trampling on our rights. In just a few minutes, we will see where every Senator in this body stands. I pray that we stand with the people.
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