The Biden administration will continue to bar foreign visitors who are unvaccinated against COVID. Yes, this is harmful and totally unreasonable, but it also perfectly fits the time, the current politics, and the current administration.

Continuing this policy perpetuates the rejection of cost-benefit analysis and the total disregard for proportionality that has defined America’s COVID response for more than two years. It also reflects a total abdication of duty by both the President and by Congress.

WHY DOES THE LEFT HATE SUCCESS?

In February, from the dais of the House chamber, President Biden declared that “COVID no longer controls our lives.” The next day, Republicans brought to the floor of that same chamber a bill to end the ban on unvaccinated foreign visitors and stop the CDC from reinstating the travel ban.

Almost no other country bans unvaccinated visitors — not France, not Canada, not Mexico, not Germany, not Denmark, not Ghana, not Japan. Only the U.S. and a handful of other countries. Biden has declared that the state of emergency ends May 11. The travel ban doesn't apply to illegal immigrants and doesn't apply to immigrants who enter by car or on foot — only those who try to enter by plane.

Most Americans have totally moved on from COVID protocols as almost everyone has had it at least once, and thus has strong and lasting protection from serious illness.

It’s hard to imagine why our travel ban will stay in place after the state of emergency is over, unless you subscribe to the philosophy that dominated most of our media and half of our government class in 2020 and 2021, which is that there are no trade-offs in COVID mitigation: If it might prevent one single case of COVID, it should be done regardless of potential costs.

This was destructive and inhumane in 2020 and 2021, but it was almost understandable considering the fear and panic in those days. Nowadays, it’s simply stupid and evil and inexplicable.

Nevertheless, only a few Democrats voted for the bill to repeal the travel ban, and many of the Democratic “Nays” basically admitted that this travel ban was bad policy, but they opposed repealing the bad policy for other reasons.

For instance, New Jersey Democrat Frank Pallone objected that the bill would “undermine vaccine confidence” and “undermine the expertise of our public health officials.”

And this sort of argument points us towards two other endemic problems in our politics. The first is the bone-deep partisanship of lawmakers and the left-leaning media. Check out the New York Times headline on the bill to allow unvaccinated foreigners to visit the U.S.:

“House Votes to End Covid Precautions as G.O.P. Uses Pandemic in Political Attacks”

“Republicans in Congress are seeking to capitalize on discontent about the federal coronavirus response while the party’s presidential contenders are vying to be the biggest foe of restrictions.’

REPUBLICANS POUNCE!

The Times editors know that the foreigner ban is bad policy, but the only way they can think about the effort to repeal this bad policy is to describe it as Republicans trying to get political gain. Obviously, this is why Democrats oppose this bill, too — they don’t want to take sides with those Neanderthal Republicans.

But there’s a deeper, more disturbing problem here: Too many lawmakers, out of some misplaced “trust the experts” idea combined with ignorance of the Constitution, believe that Congress shouldn’t actually make the law, but should totally defer to the executive branch.

Check out the House Democratic Whip’s statement on Massie’s bill:

CLICK HERE FOR MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

“House Democrats have been stalwart in their defense of following the science over playing politics with COVID-19. The decision to end vaccine requirements for global travelers should be made by public health experts with real-time understanding of the situation.”

The policy is bad. Congress not only has the authority to repeal a bad CDC policy, it actually has the duty to do so. But this stance of deference is now the norm in Congress, as is the lack of proportion and the partisanship that characterize the defense and perpetuation of Biden’s travel ban.