A.G. Gancarski
U.S. Sen. Rick Scott failed Wednesday to get the Senate to consider legislation to remove governmental mask requirements from airplanes, trains, and other forms of mass transit.
Unanimous consent would have been required to move what Scott called a “pure commonsense” bill out of committee and to the floor for a vote.
That did not come to pass because Democrats couldn’t help but follow their “political science,” Scott said.
“While we choose to listen to the science, all the Democrats care about is following their political science,” Scott said in a press release Wednesday evening.
The Stop Mandating Additional Requirements for Travel (SMART) Act was intended, Scott said on the Senate floor, to contest the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention decision “to buck the science when it comes to travel” by continuing to require masks on mass transit.
“The government has no right to tell them what to do,” Scott said about travelers.
Mask mandates make “travel with children nearly impossible,” he added, especially impacting parents of young children. “Why is the CDC singling out airlines and public transportation?”
Scott’s urgent argument was countered by Sen. Patty Murray, a Washington Democrat, who noted the dangerous Delta variant of the new coronavirus and the large group of unvaccinated people in public. Murray’s objection blocked the bill’s hearing, the latest setback for Scott in attempting to sidestep committees, but one that stunned him nonetheless.
“I’m actually shocked that my colleague from the state of Washington doesn’t want to follow the science,” Scott said. “Americans would do the right thing. It is not our job to dictate and tell them how to live their lives.”
“The government has no right to tell them to wear a mask,” Scott added, noting that private businesses would retain the right to have mask rules.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention instituted the current order effective Feb. 1. It has been ameliorated recently to allow for “enforcement discretion.”
“On June 10, 2021, CDC announced that, until it can amend the January 29, 2021, Order, it will exercise its enforcement discretion regarding certain aspects of the Order to not require that people wear masks while outdoors on conveyances or while outdoors on the premises of transportation hubs. CDC requests that Federal partners and any cooperating state and local entities exercise similar enforcement discretion,” the CDC asserted.
8 comments
Michael Hoffmann
June 23, 2021 at 5:54 pm
Headline from today’s Orlando Sentinel:
12 Delta variant cases reported in Orange County, likely to become predominant strain, health official says
If Rick Science — the latter-day Canute who banned the term global warming while mis-serving as Governor — were not a quack, he would realize that Florida is only half-vaccinated, and the new delta variant may throw us back to 2020.
Meanwhile, what happened to his private property ethos, which helped him rise from poverty to great wealth? Airlines are, after all, private property.
ross
June 24, 2021 at 7:51 am
Rick Scott is not only a loser, he is a sore loser. His press release trumpeting his loss is full of bull. Rick, indeed the Federal Government does have the right to require masks on public transportation. Just like it can ban traveling with a loaded gun. Maybe Rick should turn his efforts to banning seatbelt requirements for automobile drivers, at the state level. After all, if one doesn’t wear his or her seatbelt it won’t infect others and help viruses mutate. I wish that Rick would take his carpet bag to Texas, he could help Texas become it’s own nation, and build a wall to keep the lunatics in, and be alien king.
AAM
June 24, 2021 at 10:33 am
I don’t think the government should mandate mask wearing. If you are an airline or public transpiration and you as a company want to mandate it, then mandate it, if you don’t then don’t.
If a store or any establishment wants to mandate masks and I don’t want to put one on, I don’t go in. If an establishment mandates it and I want to go in, I put one on because I respect their choice, and then go about my day. Having the Federal Gov tell me I must wear one or I must get the vaccine, that doesn’t work for me. If it works for you (people in general) then perfect, wear a mask and get vaccinated, but one size does not fit all.
That is the great thing about this country, we wake up everyday and know we can choose to do whatever we want. If the choice you make has severe consequences, then you take those consequences because that’s what you chose to do.
Big government is trying to take away our choices, that’s what has people so pissed off and fighting with each other. Live and let live, if we all made it this far in life, I’m pretty sure we all know how to make good choices.
PeterH
June 24, 2021 at 2:25 pm
SURPRISE!
Rick Scott is not an epidemiologist!
Today’s GQP lacks foresight and conservative values.
Join fellow conservatives at the Lincoln Project!
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The Real ANTIFA
PeterH
June 24, 2021 at 2:29 pm
FUN FACT
Per capita, Florida has had more COVID deaths than California!
Now you know what Rick Scott, Ron DeSantis and Marco Rubio’s incompetent leadership looks like.
Join real conservatives at the Lincoln Project.
PeterH
June 25, 2021 at 11:13 pm
Facts are Facts …… FOX News never looks a per capita studies. It’s time to face reality ….. FLORIDA had more deaths than California AND CONTINUES TO BE WORSE OFF THAN CALIFORNIA!
https://www.wlrn.org/news/2021-06-17/california-and-florida-took-diverging-pandemic-paths-who-did-it-better
Tom
June 28, 2021 at 1:44 pm
I always have to laugh when Tricky Rick weighs in on public health issues. Rick Scott, the CEO of a health company that ripped off taxpayer funded Medicare, Medicaid, Tricare, etc. to the tune of billions, earning the company the largest fine (at the time) for its crime. And Rick the CEO? He said he had no idea his company was doing all those bad things. He walked away Scott-free! So yeah, he’s one to listen to when it comes to health–he’s got all the angles figured!
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