NEW AMERICAN – Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said Thursday it was “absolutely the government’s business” to know which Americans have or haven’t been vaccinated against COVID-19.
Appearing on CNN, Becerra was responding to GOP criticisms of the Biden administration’s planned “door-to-door” campaign to “educate” unvaccinated Americans on the importance of getting inoculated and how safe and accessible vaccines are.
He began his response by saying the government has had to “spend trillions of dollars to try to keep Americans alive during this pandemic” — suggesting that spending taxpayers’ money somehow gives the government the right to poke its nose into taxpayers’ health choices.
“So it is absolutely the government’s business, it is taxpayers’ business, if we have to continue to spend money to try to keep people from contracting COVID and helping reopen the economy,” he said, seemingly equating the interests of the government that he represents and of people who pay taxes.
The secretary also noted that “knocking on a door has never been against the law” and that Americans “don’t have to answer. But we hope you do.” (See video below.)
Becerra’s explanation, however, raised even more red flags as he argued that the administration wants to give Americans “the sense that they have the freedom to choose.”
The secretary went on to state that the government tries to “give people as much freedom and choice as possible” — as if freedom derives from government, which can then decide how much or little freedom we are allowed to have. “Clearly, when over 600,000 Americans have died, the best choice is to get vaccinated,” he concluded, implying that the government knows best.
Becerra’s comments sparked a new wave of criticism.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) referred to the secretary as “Big Brother Becerra.”
“What happened to health privacy and personal freedom? Too much liberty has been lost … ” Click here to read more.
