As GOP discontent with top Biden health officials intensifies, a group of House Republicans introduced a House bill Wednesday to oust White House health advisor and epidemiologist Dr. Anthony Fauci, noting that “Few people have earned their termination more visibly.”
Representative Warren Davidson (R-Ohio) is a sponsor of the bill, titled “Fauci’s Incompetence Requires Early Dismissal (FIRED) Act.” Its co-sponsors include Representative Chip Roy (R-Texas), Andy Biggs (R-Ariz.), and Ralph Norman (R-S.C.).
Should it become law, Fauci would be forced to leave his job.
“In the wake of massive missteps by Dr. Fauci and his subordinates in the handling of the coronavirus pandemic, this bill addresses an oft-overlooked issue: The lack of accountability for unelected bureaucrats,” reads a press statement from Davidson’s office.
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“Under Dr. Fauci’s guidance, Americans have lost confidence in the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control, leading to confusion and serious government overreach that has threatened Americans’ livelihoods and freedoms. Despite successful treatment therapies, a historic vaccination development, and decreasing cases, Dr. Fauci has continued to advise healthy, low-risk Americans to continue to act as if the pandemic were out of control — after overseeing nearly a year of draconian public health policies that have decimated the U.S. economy.”
“Dr. Fauci represents everything that President Eisenhower warned us about in his farewell address: The scientific-technical elite steering the country toward their own ends,” Davison said.
The bill has little chance of becoming law with Democrats in control of both chambers of Congress and President Joe Biden in the White House, but it does reflect the growing frustrations among Republican lawmakers with Fauci and other Biden administration health officials.
In April, similar legislation was introduced by Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.), who proposed “Fire Fauci Act” that would “slash the salary of Dr. Always Wrong to $0,” until the Senate confirms a “new NIAID Administrator,” even though the position’s appointment is not a part of Senate’s confirmation.
“Americans deserve better than a self-promoting career bureaucrat like Fauci, who spent the last year getting it wrong almost all of the time,” Greene said.
President Biden praises Fauci and would certainly veto any piece of legislation that targets him, even in the unlikely event of the bill gaining enough support among the Democrats.
“So my message to you is this: Listen to Dr. Fauci, one of the most distinguished and trusted voices in the world,” Biden said during his address to the nation on the fight against the coronavirus pandemic from the White House.
Biden’s White House has defended Fauci and its other medical experts and their elevated role in the administration. Counselor to the President Jeff Zients, when the administration recommended a pause on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, said the White House is letting “science agencies to lead with science” because political White House officials “bring nothing to the table.”
Reportedly, Biden is such a huge admirer of Dr. Fauci, he is deliberating whether to create a new federal holiday — Dr. Fauci Day on December 13, the day the first COVID-19 vaccination was administered in the United States. It may sound like a satire, but Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser actually proclaimed December 24, 2020 “Dr. Anthony S. Fauci Day” in the District.
Americans, meanwhile, grow increasingly critical of the notorious Doctor. The national YouGov poll “How much do Americans trust Dr. Anthony Fauci?” in May 2020 indicated most Americans (58 percent) trusted Fauci’s advice. That included 68 percent of Democrats and 48 percent of Republicans. In April 6, 2021, however, the numbers were different: only 37 percent of American adults trusted Fauci “a lot” and 14 “trusted somewhat.” Sixty-seven percent of Democrats and only seven percent of Republicans care about Fauci’s recommendations.
Fauci is not alone in losing public trust. The Harvard poll released today shows only 52 percent of Americans having a great deal of trust in CDC. Other health agencies were even lower — only 37 percent of Americans said they had a lot of trust in the National Institutes of Health or the Food and Drug Administration.
If the country is going to come out of the pandemic-related devastation on its feet, it needs public health officials who are reliable, objective, and trustworthy. The evidence consistently indicates that Fauci is not that kind of official, as he remains a part of the problem, not the solution.
