House Freedom Caucus Demands McConnell Block Spending Resolution to Defund Vaccine Mandates 

The House Freedom Caucus on Wednesday demanded Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY) support the initiative by some House and Senate Republicans to block a continuing resolution to fund the federal government, thereby withholding funds for enforcing the Biden administration’s vaccine mandate in private businesses.

If the Freedom Caucus can persuade McConnell to block the passage of the continuing resolution, it will further backlog and hinder the Democrats’ ability to pass President Biden’s $1.2 trillion reconciliation package.

“As you know, the current government funding mechanism expires on Friday night, thus the Senate Republican conference enjoys important leverage against those mandates,” the caucus wrote McConnell, per a press release.

“We therefore write to request that you use all procedural tools at your disposal to deny timely passage of the CR unless it prohibits funding – in all respects – for the vaccine mandates and enforcement thereof,” they continued.

Breitbart News reported Wednesday Democrats have found themselves in a legislative jam due to prioritizing far-left initiatives instead of funding the Democrat-controlled government, a basic responsibility of the party:

Democrats must find a solution to fund the government before the federal government closes after midnight Friday. Though the Democrats are slowly attempting to work out a compromise with Senate and House Republicans to stave off another shut down until January 28, that could have been prevented weeks if not months ago by Democrats prioritizing funding the government instead of pushing massive spending bills through Congress.

Republicans, however, see an opportunity to defund President Joe Biden’s vaccine mandate on the private sector. Republicans are “planning to object to quick consideration of a stopgap measure to extend funding into early 2022 unless Democratic leaders agree to deny money to enforce the mandate,” Politico Playbook reported.

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Republican senators also reportedly have support from Republican House members, which also get a vote to approve any funding measure the Senate passes. According to Playbook, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is supporting the Senators’ strategy.

Thrusting the Democrats into a pickle could have several potential outcomes. The first is Friday’s midnight deadline may pass, and the Democrat-controlled government will shut down until the vaccine mandates are defunded.

The second result is that a shutdown may further complicate the Democrats’ effort to pass the reconciliation package before Christmas, a target date Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) reportedly outlined on Tuesday. Delaying the passage of the massive tax-and-spend package would push it into an election year. Passing the legislation before the 2022 midterms would likely make it more difficult to enact many of the radical items within the package.

A third outcome could be Democrats’ nixing the vaccine mandates’ enforcement funding, which would be a huge win for Republicans.

Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø