Massie revolts over border security bill provision: ‘Republicans are about to make a huge mistake’

Rep. Thomas Massie says Republicans are being hypocrites in supporting the current border security bill, not because he doesn’t want better border security, but because it includes E-Verify, a provision in which the federal government would force employers to track work authorization. The Washington Examiner reported Monday evening, “A Massie spokesperson confirmed to the Washington Examiner that the Kentucky Republican would not be voting for the bill because of those E-Verify provisions. In a tweet on Sunday, Massie compared the E-Verify provisions to COVID-19 vaccine mandates.” https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1655219404009873409 Massie’s right. Republicans either want the federal government to have the extra and unconstitutional power to force businesses to command its employees to take certain actions… or they don’t. It was illegal and immoral when the demand was getting vaccinated and it would be just as illegal and immoral regarding E-Verify. The libertarian-leaning congressman followed up with another tweet in which he shared the Examiner story. https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1655717731319304192 Giving the government more power - giving Biden or any other president such power - would be as grand a mistake as Massie insists. During the pandemic, progressives high and low generally were typically unabashedly in favor of using state power at various levels to force employers and individuals to adhere to certain COVID-19 restrictions and requirements - mask, vaccines, shutdowns and more.  Now it appears they’re even moving toward wanting government regulation of speech. Just last week Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez said with a straight face that the government should regulate Fox News. Befuddling as it is, that’s where Democrats’ collective head seems to be now. The Constitution and First Amendment be damned.  https://twitter.com/RepThomasMassie/status/1655754838091653120 There should be a major oppositional party that resists calls for the government to dictate our most basic human actions - not agree with them when it suits their purposes. In retrospect, given what we’ve learned about the longtime lingering effects on kids and others who suffered through many pandemic policies, most of the government compulsion that happened in recent years looks even more authoritarian and unforgivable than it did at the time. Thomas Massie is right that Republicans shouldn’t replicate that kind of unlimited governance with E-Verify.  “Might as well call it V-Verify.” Indeed.

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