When Is A Mandate Acceptable?
Lots of folks on the political right have loudly criticized attempts by the Biden Administration to impose mandates tied to COVID-19…mask mandates, vax mandates, the whole load. And I agree…in my mind, it was quite an overreach that largely has been correctly stopped by courts.
Similarly, Republicans in the Iowa statehouse passed a law last year to stop school districts and municipalities from imposing their own COVID mandates. Again, upheld by a federal court. And again, I agreed.
But notice what’s happening at the statehouse this session. There’s a bill that would mandate limitations on what employers could know about your medical condition—ailments, vaccination status, the works. And another would mandate that gas stations have to provide multiple blend options of ethanol.
Don’t get me wrong, ethanol is a huge industry in our state and the economic impact for all of us of an expansion would be huge. I always put a blended fuel in my car or the gas can for my snow blower and mowers.
My concern, however, is that you cannot say government mandates are horrible overreaches when the subject is something you don’t like…but then support them when the subject is something you do like. Essentially, it’s about intellectual consistency…not a difference based on money, or a crisis that sets bad precedent, or a topic where we can stick it to the other side.
Just something to consider…because precedent and consistency both matter.
