America's Talking - Episode 16: Potential exodus of Navy SEALs brings backlash on vaccine mandate

Episode Date: September 24, 2021

President Joe Biden’s federal vaccine mandate sparked controversy among Americans, but one of the nation’s most elite fighting forces may be hit harder than other groups by the new requirement. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin announced in August, with Biden’s approval, that all U.S. service members must receive a COVID-19 vaccine. The decision came after the Pfizer vaccine received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. That mandate, though, leaves many U.S. troops facing a tough personal decision. Just the News reported this week that hundreds of Navy SEALs have been told they will not be deployed if they don't receive the vaccine and will no longer be able to serve as a Navy SEAL. Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/america-in-focus/support Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Welcome to America in Focus, powered by thecentersquare.com. I'm John Spittaro, and this is the 38th week of 2021. Coming up, we'll take a quick look at one of the top stories from thecenter square.com and later, executive editor of the center square, Dan McAulb, and DC reporter Casey Harper, will take a deeper dive into some of the top stories of the week, including more fallout from President Biden's controversial vaccine mandates, the developing situation at the U.S. Mexico border, and an alarming warning from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce

as Congress considers a new spending bill. Coming up right after this on America and Focus, powered by thecentersquare.com. Hi, this is Chris Krug, publisher of the Center Square. Our team produces the nationally read and recognized news stories at thecenter.com, the country's fastest growing, non-profit, nonpartisan, state-focused news and information site.

We deliver essential information with a taxpayer sensibility through reporting that's easy to understand and easy to share with your friends and family. We know that you need information that allows you to understand what the governor and your local legislators are doing. Get the news that you need to know at thecentersquare.com. That's thecenter square.com. Thecenter square.com. Welcome back. Welcome back. Here are the top stories of the past week on the center square. The U.S. Supreme Court announced Monday that it would hear a case in December that directly

challenges the landmark 1973 abortion case Roe v. Wade. The High Court set December 1st as the date it would hear Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, which means a decision could be reached by June 2022. This case features a challenge to a Mississippi law, banning abortions after 15 weeks. This case specifically addresses the constitutionality of abortion. bans that take effect before a fetus would be visible outside the womb. Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch has asked the court to use this case to overturn Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood versus Casey, which would be the most significant abortion ruling in decades if it occurred. The news comes after the Supreme Court recently allowed a Texas law to stand that bans abortion

after six weeks when a heartbeat is detectable. To read more about these stories and many others, visit thecenter square.com. Now for a closer look, over to Dan McAelib and Casey Harper. Thank you, John, and welcome to America in Focus, powered by the Center Square. I'm Dan McAleb, executive editor of the Center Square Newswire Service. We're recording this on Friday, September 24th. Joining me again today is Casey Harper, the Center Square's Washington, D.C. Bureau Chief. Hey, Casey, the calendar turned to fall this weekend, at least in Northern Illinois, the temperatures changed with it. We've had some mornings in the 40s already.

Wow. Yeah, Casey, do you have any favorite autumn traditions? Favorite autumn traditions. Well, I already know your favorite autumn tradition, Dan. And it's the pumpkin spice latte return. I have no doubt. Pumpkin flavor doesn't know. No, I'd say a favorite is I like to go for walks.

You know, I grew up in Texas, and you really can't go outside for like six months in the middle of the year without having a heat stroke. So it's nice to be out here in D.C. where there's real seasons and get to go for, you know, a cool walk in the day. Gotcha. And I know about that Texas seat. We moved my daughter into her freshman year of college down at Sam Houston State University in Texas. And when we moved her in last month, it was brutal. Anyway, we got a lot to talk about this week, Casey. So why don't we jump into it? One of the big stories of this week that you wrote about had to do with President Biden's vaccine.

mandate on various groups of people, including the military. Tell us about this Navy SEAL story. Sure, it's funny you say that because I don't know if you guys can hear this background noise, but I'm by the Pentagon today, and there's military helicopters flying overhead. I don't know if those are, you know, have anything to do with the SEALs. But the SEALs, there has been reporting from basically saying that many Navy SEALs are really in danger of being kicked out of being Navy SEALs because they're not willing to take the vaccine mandate. So Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said earlier this year, basically, you know,

we're going to require the vaccine of all U.S. service members whether the FDA approves it or not, but we'll set this deadline. And that deadline was in September. But then, of course, Pfizer gave approval or got FDA approval for their vaccine. And so now U.S. service members are required. required to be vaccinated. Now, the Navy SEALs, if they refuse, you know, this is the reporting news from just the news. And basically what they've been told is that if they refuse, that they will not be able to be deployed and they will no longer be able to serve as Navy SEALs.

Now, we only have about, you know, probably less than 3,000 Navy SEALs. It's a very select group. It's a lot. It's very expensive to train a Navy SEAL. But they're elite, right? I mean, they're a more top service members in the military, and they're often sent in at the beginning of operations because of how elite they are. Right. You remember it was the Navy SEALs that were sent in to kill Osama bin Laden, right?

I mean, these are the guys when it was time to go after Osama bin Laden. These are the guys that went in. And so losing, you know, potentially hundreds of these guys is really significant because it takes so long to train them. they are so elite, it's so difficult to get into it. But, you know, this idea of people being, you know, kicked out of the military or even dishonorably discharge is causing a lot of controversy. There's, you know, a lot of people who don't want to take the vaccine because it's, you know, just to develop quickly and health concerns and all those kinds of things.

But there's national security concerns because of this? I mean, potentially hundreds, you know, some significant percentage of Navy SEALs being kicked out, can't participate in what could be, you know, important operations. That would seem to be a national security concern to me. Yeah, I mean, it's a great question. I think, of course, the weekend Navy SEALs is going to be, make the United States less able to respond to threats. You know, another question is how not just the SEALs,

I mean, this reporting has been specifically that SEALs were told, like given this ultimatum, but this applies, you know, across the military. And even if you think, you know, a certain percentage of soldiers across the, all branches, not being able to be deployed, that's definitely where you start to get really complicated.

Guys are units together, you know. And then you think about guys and women, men and women, absolutely. And the people hire up the chain, too. You know, you start having higher ranked officers who are not deployed. What does that do for,

or I don't know, who and I'm vaccinated, what kind of does it cause of vision, unity, all those kinds of questions. And so, you know, Thomas Massey, who's been really outspoken against vaccine stuff, really warned about this earlier this year, actually, because there was a somewhat similar, though, less public military mandate

against the anthrax vaccine. And we saw people leave the military because they just refused to get the anthrax vaccine. They didn't want to risk it. Now, the COVID vaccine, has been, you know, much, much more public. It's been a much bigger topic of debate. But that's, you know, the anthrax vaccine is like a microcosm.

And this, you know, several senators basically, you know, like Roger Marshall, Ted Cruz, James Langford, Tommy Toborville introduced legislation that would prevent the military from dishonorably discharging those who refuse to be vaccinated. And this has actually caused a lot of controversy because there's some people within the military who really don't like this. They raise the questions about unity that basically that, you know, soldiers can't be given the option to disobey a law for order by politicians. That's kind of their pushback on it.

So we'll see what this goes. I mean, as of now, these deadlines are in place. The service members are required to be vaccinated. Without some big intervention, I think it's going to keep going this way. And there's going to be maybe seals who are not deployed. The scale of that is, you know, what? to be determined if there's no intervention. I mean, I'm sure there's going to be some people who,

when it really comes down to it, just get the vaccine to stay in. But I don't think all of them will. So we'll see how sweeping this turns out to be. Interesting, but a little bit scary. We'll continue to cover this story as there are developments. Sticking with COVID-19 and COVID-19 treatments, Casey, President Biden's administration is taking a little bit, taking some heat on another issue that has to do with rationing of monoclonal antibody treatments. First, what are these treatments?

And second, what is the Biden administration? Why is the Biden administration rationing these treatments in states? Right. So monoclonal antibody, which is kind of hard to say treatments, are really, you know, some of the best treatment that we have to respond to the COVID infection. And so there's been, it's really been demonstrated and shown that this treatment really does a good job of preventing hospitalization for those who are affected. And it's kind of a victim of its own success because it's been so effective and so popular that all the states want it and there's shortages. And this is a treatment that you get only if you contract COVID-19 and detect positive, test positive for COVID. Right. That's kind of a sweet spot.

Like when you, when you test positive and maybe you're at risk and they don't want you to be. before you get worse, they'll start this treatment to kind of try to cut off, hit up, you know, at the head before you get so bad that you're hospitalized, intubated, and all those things because it starts going down a lot faster once you get to that state. So yeah, it's just really effective. And because, so what the way it was operating is all these individual clinics were ordering these treatments themselves, getting them shipped to them. But because of that, some states with really high levels of cases like Florida and Texas, we're taking an outsized proportion of the doses, right, because they have so many more people who are infected. If you've been following the infection rates and things there, my home state, Texas, Florida, there are a few others, have been really hard hit. And so really the Biden administration stepped in and said

they're going to take over the distribution of these treatments so that it's more, quote unquote, equitable. Now, Ron DeSantis has been pretty upset about this, pretty outspoken. Florida governor. Right, Florida governor. saying it's not fair. He's already tried ways to get around it,

ordering it from different companies and stuff. But, you know, we'll see how it works. I mean, federal oversight of this. I mean, you can say it makes sense. I think sometimes adding in the bureaucracy can really, you know, gum things up. Now, it seems to me, you know, during the beginning of COVID-19, you know,

we heard about hospitals running out of ventilators, the N95, the medical masks and things like that. You know, the President Trump's administration, former President Trump's administration stepped in and got businesses involved to mass produce ventilators and PPPEs, things like that. Is that something that we couldn't do with this treatment? So it's widely available.

And there's enough doses to give the states that they need. need? Yeah, I mean, it's a good question. Going back a little bit, you'll, you mentioned Trump. This is actually monoclonal antibodies are the treatment that they gave Trump when he was infected. Okay. That's right. Before it was even widely available to the public. And so, you know, now it's become more widely available. You know, President Biden has promised 150,000 doses a week will be distributed. It was 100,000. And they're upping it to 150,000. The, we'll see if there's actually shortages. I mean, so some of these, like, Texas. of Florida have been opening more and more clinics to treat more and more people. And there's just a lot of questions over what does it mean to fairly distribute these? So like in Tennessee, there's been a lot of talk about giving preferential or giving priority of this antibody treatment to the unvaccinated. And you can see why this might upset some people. People feel like, you know, the vaccinated.

There's even other people who've said that only vaccinated should get treated. But from a medical standpoint, you know, those who are unvaccinated are more likely to be hospitalized and die. And so therefore, there could get preferential treatment of the antibodies. Now, someone who, you know, you could see why that would feel like rewarding bad behavior to someone who is vaccinated and, you know, taking a dose from a vaccinated person to give it to an unvaccinated person. So, you know, it's easy to say, we're going to, you know, fairly distribute all these things equitably. But when it comes down to making those decisions, how is that actually going to happen? How do you ration health care? I think they're running into problems already and what that looks

like. I think big pharma should just step up and start easy for me to say, right? I'm not a doctor, not a medical person or whatsoever. But step up and start mass producing this. So there's plenty of treatments available for everybody. Well, let's move on, Casey. More news from the U.S. border with Mexico. Is that going on down there? Oh my gosh. It seems never ending. Massive amounts of

immigrants flooding the border, crossing the border illegally. What's the latest? Yeah, so there's really two stories in this. One story is that there has been this encampment of nearly 15,000 mostly Haitian immigrants in the town of

border town of Del Rio, Texas. Now, this is kind of made things go viral because you see this this photo, these photos of just thousands and thousands of immigrants like camped out. I mean, just spread across the, you know, the ground like on these, even with tents. And, you know, it's this kind of a very visual resonating image to see so many people waiting to be picked up and processed by Border Patrol. So, you know, it's really risen to the national level of attention. So Biden, you know, sent, had been, Biden was trying to address the DHS secretary went down there.

You know, there's been different members of Congress who've gone down there and taken videos. Ted Cruz did a video, you know, standing in front of the camps. And so it plays in this larger narrative of, you know, Biden not doing enough on immigration is for a Republican standpoint. And so that's one story.

And they've been trying to deal with that. The numbers are going down. Some of those numbers are going down because people left the camps and just either went, into Mexico or, you know, fled into the United States. And then the other reason they're going down is because people were being processed, but our own Center Square reporting for Bethany Blankley, you know,

talked to one of the heads of, you know, the head officials of Border Patrol Union down in Texas. And he said something that's really been talked about some and speculated some, but it's that the majority of those immigrants who are processed by Border Patrol are just released into the United States. And so the way it works is, you know, they can. catch someone, they process them, do some paperwork, and they say,

you need to report in, you know, 30 or 60 days to your immigration hearing. Here it is, you know, give them a card or whatever with the thing on it. And then you just let them go. And they usually don't come back. You know, I mean, sometimes they do, but the number shows, yeah, I mean, why, you know, you can understand why they wouldn't come back because they could risk being not approved.

And if they can just, they're, you know, release in the country. I don't want to be deported back to their. Yeah, I mean, the whole idea of bail is based on this thing that people won't come back for hearings. So you mentioned her, but Bethany Blankley, our correspondent in Texas, traveled to the border this week, got an interview with the chief, the head of the Border Patrol Union, Brandon Judd, who estimated that more than 60% of these immigrants who have crossed the border illegally are being released into American communities, are not being sent back to Texas, of course, are not being sent back to their home countries.

Of course, Texas governor, Greg Abbott has issued states of emergency in a number of counties because of the flood of illegal immigrants and the increased crime that's happened in many Texas communities. He also this week said he was going to spend another $100 million or allocate another $100 million in Texas taxpayer dollars. It's not federal tax taxpayer dollars. the borders are supposed to be a federal issue. But because Abbott and many others say the Biden administration is not properly handling this increase in illegal immigration, Texas is doing what it can to try and police the border and whatnot. And Governor Abbott allocated $100 million more to go towards state police. And Texas, Texas, National Guardsmen and whatnot to help with the border situation. This is an ongoing and developing

situation and will continue to follow this one as well. Moving on, Casey. The Democrats in Congress are still trying to maneuver their $3.5 trillion spending bill through Congress. Of course, President Biden supports it, but the U.S. Chamber of Commerce this week started a campaign pushing back against it. Why? Well, that's exactly. right, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce launched a six-figure television ad campaign targeting states like New York, Iowa, Minnesota, California. And they're making really clear that the $3.5 trillion spending bill before Congress that's been supported exclusively by Democrats is not something they support. And, you know, they've even said things like you cannot, you should not expect

the support of the business community. If you pass this bill, you know, some of the language they're using is this quote is this reconciliation bill is effectively 100 bills in one representing every big government idea that's never been able to pass Congress. That's a quote from the, you know, the president of the Chamber of Commerce, Suzanne and Clark. So they're using a really strong language. They call it everything but the kitchen sink approach. You know, part of their opposition is the tax increases that will have to be passed to fund it. Part of it is that, you know, just such a high level of government spending is going to expand entitlements. It's going to expand the size of government. It's going to create future tax liabilities, which way down on the economy. It's going to contribute

to inflation, inflation, which is a really big problem right now for the U.S. economy. So you're seeing the business community come out really strongly. And it's at a really, really pivotal time for the Biden administration because he's balancing so many sides. You know, Republicans have really dug in their heels that they do not want to support this $3.5 trillion bill. But they have, you know, said they support the $1 trillion infrastructure bill. Some of these business economic groups are saying the $3.5 trillion bill is a terrible idea. All of the more progressive Democrats have been very aggressively for the $3.5 trillion bill. And recently 11, you know, 11 Democratic senators, names you're recognized like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, Sheldon White House, Kirsten, Gillibrand, Corey Booker, 11 in all.

sent really released a joint statement, making it public and very clear that if the $3.5 trillion bill isn't passed, then they will withdraw their support for the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, which already kind of settled on. And so Biden is in a tough spot. He wants all these things to pass. Infrastructure bill is definitely more popular because the $3.5 trillion bill has a lot of more controversial, you know, progressive hobby horses in it. And it even had provisions for amnesty until a few days ago when the Senate parliamentarian said, you can't, you know, put amnesty in this bill because it's technically a budget bill.

And it's 51 votes. So there's a lot going on. It's really complex. And it's come clear where it's going to go. Well, here's the quote that stood out for me. And this is from U.S. Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Suzanne Clark, quote, the bill is an existential threat to America's fragile economic recovery and future prosperity. We will not find durable or practical solutions in one massive bill that is equivalent to more than twice the combined budgets of all 50 states.

She's not really mincing words there. The U.S. Chamber is definitely opposed to this bill and doing all it can to make sure it does not pass. Yeah, I mean, and they are an interest group. but they're not a wing of the Republican Party, the Chamber of Commerce, right? I mean, they have independent views that, you know, vary on different things. But these guys do know something about business,

to put it like it. I mean, these are some of the biggest, the most successful business people in the country. I mean, kind of, you know, I think we should be inclined to at least hear them out. I mean, they have a voice just like any other voter. And if so many employees, When you say a business leader, I think people may think Tycoon and rich guy who, why should we care about him?

But another way to say it is all the biggest employers in the country are raising the alarm. All the guy, all the people who pay send out the most paychecks every week are raising the alarm. But it's not just the big employers. Small businesses will be impacted by this year. Small businesses create more than 50% of the jobs in the U.S. So this is alarming for businesses across the board. That's right. Well, we've got time for just one more story, Casey, as it does every week.

The U.S. Department of Labor released unemployment data this week. And sadly, if not surprisingly, new unemployment claims were up again. What can you tell us about this? Yeah, this unemployment issue has been kind of a really interesting one. You never know what to expect. Ever since COVID, our unemployment numbers have just. has been so out of whack. And so the Department of Labor released new data

showing that 351,000 people filed for first time unemployment benefits for the week ending September 18th. So that's that's 16,000 more than the previous week. So it's definitely an increase, which some people was kind of surprising because there was a hope that with the end of the federal unemployment benefits, which are $300 a week, that the unemployment level would drop. So, so far that hasn't happened. I do think, you know, this is kind of

analysis here. I think it's a little early to make that determination. It does take people a little while to find jobs. There's more too. But it's definitely something that wasn't expected. It's kind of surprising. You know, I think one thing that could be a play here is that, you know, president, we talked about this last week, but President Joe Biden passed the monthly child tax credit. And so, and he increased it, you know, he increased it and he made it monthly. And so what used to be a big payout that you would get when you filed your taxes with kids has become really a form of universal basic income for people with children. And so if you have, you know, three kids and you're getting, you know, $250, $300 per kid and you're getting state unemployment benefits, which may be like $300 a week, you know,

you're up to like around, and I don't want to use it, but a couple thousand dollars, you know, which could feasibly be enough to disincentivize people from working. So to put it in, you know, once in a summary, yes, the federal unemployment benefits being removed hasn't decreased unemployment like some hoped, but there have also been added other variables of new entitlement programs this year that could be conflating the data. So I think there's been more time to see if this is going to work. And also those monthly child tax credits expire in December unless they're re-uped in the legislation. Well, another story that we'll be following at the center square.com.

So please keep coming back to us to follow the news and follow Casey Harper's reporting. Casey, that is all the time we have this week. Thank you again for joining me. We'll talk to you next week. Enjoy your pumpkin spice latte. Thank you. Thank you.