Unelected bureaucrats employed with Oregon’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration have decided to make face masks permanent indefinitely.

Sen. Dennis Linthicum (R-Klamath Falls) issued a statement:

“Bureaucrats have no authority to create laws, yet Gov. Brown is using OSHA to infringe on Oregonians’ constitutional rights through its Orwellian-style permanent mask rule for employers. In pursuit of political power, the regulatory tyrants at OSHA have abused their rightful duty and have harmed free enterprise, business opportunity, and social flourishing within our communities.

“The rule forces employers to require masks until OSHA says otherwise, even as other states across the nation are ditching masks all together. This is nothing but willful misconduct by Gov. Brown.

“Gov. Brown’s administration falsely believes that Oregon will continue to grow despite the absurdity of a permanent mask rule and the costs associated with Oregon’s ever-expanding bureaucratic bloat. It is obvious she hopes to ‘buy off’ Oregonians with the $2.6 billion coming hot off the Biden administration’s monetary printing presses. Yet, this long-term debt-fueled, command-and-control Ponzi scheme will fail Americans with distortions in pricing, massive malinvestment, government inefficiency, and monumental economic waste. The government and the wealthy will walk away unscathed while hard-working Oregonians will be forced to abdicate their freedom for government control.

“Unquestioned until now, both common sense and the courts have upheld that human life contains an ‘assumption of risk,’ a fact that OSHA cannot override and ignore, regardless of the unlimited power it has been given by Gov. Brown.

“We assume risk every time we get behind the wheel of a car, cross the street, or go out in public. Unfortunately, we live in a time where many Americans are willingly giving away their freedom, and with it the ability to make risk assessments in everyday tasks, in favor of a false sense of security from the government.

“Voluntary behavior is always better than what we are witnessing today, where an unelected and unaccountable regime is punishing every violation and pursuing minor public health violations as larger opportunities to illicit fines and close businesses.”


--Staff Reports

Post Date: 2021-05-12 09:40:11