By KELLY TSHIBAKA
It’s as simple as this: The decision to get the COVID shot is one for individuals to make, in consultation with their healthcare providers. Nevertheless, President Biden wrongly believes he has the legal and moral authority not only to make medical decisions for millions of Americans, but also to impose those decisions on them and their employers. That decision has disastrous consequences for Alaska, and it will become even worse if Biden extends his mandate overreach to air travel.
Even though Biden previously said he would not declare a vaccine mandate, he has issued a directive that would require private businesses with more than 100 employees to demand that workers be vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID testing. The shot mandate also applies to healthcare facilities that receive Medicare or Medicaid reimbursement; military personnel; government contractors; and to federal, state, and local government employees, including K-12 educators, in states such as Alaska. Many employers won’t be able to absorb the cost of weekly testing, so the vaccination mandate will result in a stark choice for most people: submit to the Biden mandate or risk losing their job. This likely would have devastating consequences for families, workers, our economy, and critical industries.
Fortunately, we Alaskans support our workers and we understand that workers’
rights cannot summarily be dismissed by Biden. For example, workers may file EEO complaints saying that termination on refusal to receive the COVID shot violates their sincerely held religious beliefs under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Similarly, employees can object to taking the COVID shot due to a disability, if that disability is protected under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Employers must make every effort to make reasonable accommodations for these employees.
The obvious limits on federal power have not been a barrier to Biden’s bullying tactics before; he already tried to impose an eviction moratorium on private property owners because of the COVID pandemic. The Supreme Court rejected that one, and it should reject this one, too.
We Alaskans support public health, but ironically, Biden’s mandate threatens the integrity of our healthcare system. Alaska already is experiencing a healthcare workforce shortage; Biden’s mandate will only compound the crisis in our state. Meanwhile, many other states are likely to experience a healthcare shortage, too. The CEO of a major hospital system serving patients in four states estimated that he risked losing 15% of his nursing staff if he required they take the COVID shot. In another harbinger of things to come, a hospital in New York has stopped delivering babies because so many healthcare workers have quit their jobs in protest over President Biden’s COVID shot mandate.
But that is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg. The Biden Administration has already hinted that it may require a COVID shot for air travel. For example, Dr. Anthony Fauci recently said he would support a vaccine requirement to board commercial airplanes. When asked about that possibility, White House press secretary Jen Psaki appeared open to it, saying only, “We’ll continue to look for ways to save more lives.”
When Alaska joined the Union in 1959, it did so with the guarantee that it would stand on “equal footing” with all other states. Yet, an airplane vaccination requirement would have a disproportionately harmful impact on us and Hawaii. We do not share a border with another U.S. state, and our citizens cannot just hop in a car to cross state lines; we must fly. Moreover, we still don’t have infrastructure equivalent to other states – we often have to fly just to reach other hub areas within our state. Many of our workers and businesses have work that requires air travel. Restricting our travel by executive fiat would violate both the Alaska Statehood Act and the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, which gives only Congress the authority to regulate economic activity among the states.
We also know that many Alaskans travel to the lower 48 to receive medical care, either because certain treatments or procedures are not available here or because they are prohibitively expensive. A restriction on travel, then, could very well be a death sentence for some, and a loss of quality of life for others.
Biden already has demonstrated his disdain for Alaskans. He began by assaulting our energy industries and our property rights; now he is attacking our employment rights, our ability to continue making a living, and our medical care. We are facing a life and health issue with COVID, but Biden is making it worse – far worse. It is appalling that our President treats hostile foreign nations like Russia, China, and Iran better than he treats his own citizens, offering them energy and economic opportunities that he has denied us Alaskans. It is shameful that it is actually part of a growing pattern in his leadership, the most recent of which is abandoning untold numbers of Americans in Afghanistan, leaving them defenseless against the Taliban.
All of this exacerbates our frustration with incumbent Sen. Lisa Murkowski, who has been a collaborator of Biden’s and has enabled his destructive and divisive agenda. Her inaction and silence reflect her alliance.
We have seen enough from the Biden administration to know that he has no regard or respect for our great state. When I’m Alaska’s U.S. Senator, I will stand up for us with courage, conviction, and common sense to protect our workers, families, rights, and economy.
Kelly Tshibaka is a Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in Alaska.
I still don’t trust her. She seems like Dan Sullivan 2.0, a Washington swamp creature who claims to be conservative then stabs us in the back. And before you say Trump endorsed her, remember Trump made some very questionable personnel choices (Milley, Barrett, Barr, etc)
Jon,
Your instincts are the same as mine. She has no history of defending the constitution and her work history is pure swamp.
No one wants Lisa back and my suspicion is that the swamp anticipated they wouldn’t be able to steal another election for her so they placed this shill in Alaska as our new senator.
Real Alaskan, the more I think about this situation, the more I think you have hit the nail on the head here. I will admit that I know fairly little about Kelly Tsibaka, but what I do know leads me to be VERY suspicious of her. Her many-years career in the Swamp alone is enough reason for that.
I feel the distrust too. I know she was endorsed by Trump, but it is almost as if we are to give her extra attention and to scrutinize her closely. There is something about her that just does not feel right. We do live in a time where those who lived in the shadows are now fully thrust into the light. Lets see what happens.
You should meet her Jon – your fears and suspicions will go away. Kelly is the real deal. Lisa won’t. I strongly disagree with your assessment of Dan Sullivan also.
Y’know that feeling you get when you run into a well-intentioned oaf who’s amped up and babbling about an Amway sales pitch, a timeshare scam, or a “faith healer”, Rich?
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That’s how I feel after reading your post.
How could anything be worse than Murkowski?
That’s not how logic works, Larry.
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Decent conservative Alaskans don’t want Murky either and there’s still plenty of time for a true conservative to come forth.
To place your hand on our Bible and swear to our GOD an oath that ends in so help me GOD. Alaskans please research Kelly contact Kelly and you will find a person of integrity. Lisa you know it’s time for a change as do all Alaskans we put the same political team on the field in Washington DC and loose over and over. Citizens it could be dominion we could all vote them out but dominion wants it this way and that’s why the madness rules. I believe we all need to make a change in our team. Please contact Kelly support Kelly and vote for Kelly. For the people of the people by the people it’s not an complicated job Kelly understands this.
Integrity…like lying on a fishing license and then making excuses when caught…that kind of integrity?
Pay attention when someone gives you a peek behind the facade into their true character…it doesn’t happen often so try to not miss it.
I want to see both her hands. I want to be sure her fingers aren’t crossed as she talks.
Sounds way too much like Swampy Dan for comfort.
Excellent post and predicative of a new and lessor Alaska under the Biden presidency and with the tacit approval of Alaska’s Senator. Oh, come quickly 2022 and give us a new Senator who stands for Alaska and it’s people!!
Yeah…
What are our other choices? This may be a moot point anyway as I feel our elections don’t have any integrity anymore. Juneau is 100% ballots by mail with a building whose sole use is for elections (a cheat factory). Our election board says we will share technology with Anchorage. We’ll see I guess.
Well, Lisa already had three doses, and it hasn’t done anything for her temper and her all around nastiness. I tried to tell her that messenger RNA will only produce more of those little spikey proteins that stick their way into the braincells and disrupt nuerotransmission. Her dad thinks it’s funny, though, because he’s been looking for stimulation since 2006.
Nancy and I refuse to mask-up. Something about not getting enough oxygen to the brain. Nancy told me that I need all the oxygen I can get. As for stimulation: I sort of like counting my retirement checks that come in from the feds and the state. The Murkowski dynasty may be ending next year, but we’ve probably come closer to being royals than any other Alaskan family.
Congress are exempt from the federal mandate, yet the travel by air more than anyone else. THIS, is something that requires scrutiny going forward. Maybe Senators Sullivan & Murkowski and Congressman Young can explain the exemption and how they will still get to fly?
Tshibaka is deep state. She speaks of freedoms but I wonder if she had any part in laying the ground work for this kind of government overreach are her fingerprints on the patriot act? her time line certainly aligns with the patriot act signing. just food for thought and these are the kinds of questions I’d like to hear her asked the next time she’s on MRAK podcast.
I get a kick out of her saying ” we alaskans”. Win or lose, she will soon be back in D.C. ,her chosen home. And yes I know she grew up here. But as an adult, she chose to live elsewhere for most of her adult life.
My rough calculation suggests that she has lived in Alaska as an adult for about thirty-two months and most of that time as a State commissioner with people attending to her needs and seeking her favors. I see no evidence that she has experienced the hardships most Alaskans encounter. Sorry, high school doesn’t count.
Sounds like we need and rely on the lower 48 for every aspect of our lives up here.. I guess if they impose a vaccine mandate we should probably comply. Or not rely on them for everything. Choice is ours..
Yeah…
More information on her husband is needed.
Republicans should go down on the same ship, you all seem to think the answers are in following the great lieder Trump wherever he tells you to go. Get an independent bone in your skulls and see that he only wants to run the country from a back room in the Trump hotel chains. Hope and Changey thing like the Great Sarah was brought in to speak about. Don’t you ever get tired of these charlatans?
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