House Republicans try to blame rising COVID cases on Biden

House Republicans are trying to blame the rising rates of COVID-19 cases on President Joe Biden — even as they continue to oppose virtually every effort to curb the delta variant’s spread.

“150k new COVID cases/day,” House Oversight Committee Republicans tweeted on Tuesday, among other criticisms. “And Biden wants you to believe we’ve made progress…”

Since Biden took over, nearly 170 million more Americans have gotten fully vaccinated — vastly reducing the chances of hospitalization or death from the coronavirus.

Though the delta variant has caused a recent surge in cases, Biden has continued to follow scientific advice, encouraging people to get immunized, wear masks, and practice social distancing.

But GOP lawmakers — including several members of the House Oversight panel — have consistently fought against measures that curb the spread of COVID-19.

In May, all 210 House Republicans present tried to force the House to lift its own face mask requirements. When the attending physician reinstated mask rules in July as cases began to spike again, many in the GOP revolved and tried to shut down all floor business in protest.

“This is the People’s House, not her House,” tweeted Rep. Byron Donalds (R-FL), an Oversight committee member. “Let me make it easy for you, Speaker Pelosi, my office, and my visitors won’t comply — have an issue with that? Come see me.”

Another committee Republican, Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina, sent her staff to work from home rather than comply with mask requirements.

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), who is also is an Oversight Committee member, filed a bill to lift a federal requirement that people wear masks when flying or using public transportation and one to prohibit federal vaccine requirements.

“Say it with me: Vaccine mandates violate civil liberties,” he claimed.

Biggs also tweeted that “The Left’s crusade to mask your children in school is based on control not science,” and that “Vaccine mandates violate civil liberties.”

When Biden announced in July that he would help Americans who wanted to get vaccinated do so through door-to-door outreach, Republicans accused him of tyranny.

Texas Rep. Pat Fallon — also an Oversight Republican — warned: “Big red flags anytime the federal government is ‘going door to door.'”

Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene — who has no committee assignments — compared the effort to Nazi “brownshirts.”

“No one cares about the Delta Variant or any other variant. They are over covid & there is no amount of fear based screaming from the media that will ever force Americans to shut down again,” she wrote on July 5. “Forced masks and vaccines will cause Dems to lose big. All voters are over covid.”

An NBC News poll, released Sunday, found that 69% of American adults said they had been fully vaccinated. That included 88% of Democrats, 60% of independents, and just 55% of Republicans.

Polls have shown strong public support for both mask mandates and vaccine requirements. A recent USA Today/Ipsos poll found 66% of adults favor state and local mask requirements. The same survey found 62% favor businesses requiring workers to get immunized.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.