White House opposes NDAA provision banning dishonorable discharge for COVID-19 vaccine refusal
Bill would prohibit service members from receiving a dishonorable discharge for refusing vaccine
The White House said it “strongly opposes” a provision in the 2022 defense spending bill that would block the Pentagon from dishonorably discharging a service member who refuses to get the COVID-19 vaccine.
A section in the House version of the National Defense Authorization Act would limit military commanders’ options for disciplining those who fail to comply with the vaccination mandate, the White House Office of Management and Budget said in a statement of administration policy Wednesday.
Section 716 of the NDAA would prohibit service members who are discharged over vaccine refusal from receiving anything other than an honorable discharge, noting that “many Americans have reservations about taking a vaccine that has only been available for less than a year.”
The Pentagon has described the vaccine mandate as a “lawful order” that must be obeyed.
“To enable a uniformed force to fight with discipline, commanders must have the ability to give orders and take appropriate disciplinary measures,” the White House said in a statement.
There are many reasons a military that is made up of mostly young, healthy people might not want to take a vaccine with little clinical history for a virus that is not likely to be a great threat to them.
If punishment is warranted (I’m not arguing that it should be or the mandate is reasonable), then separation from the military should be sufficient. Such personnel would forfeit their careers, retirement, and benefits.
A dishonorable discharge makes these military personnel into prohibited persons. It’s tantamount to a domestic violence or felony conviction. A dishonorable discharge keeps these people from getting jobs in the civilian world.
The Biden Administration wants to burn our military who refuse vaccination out of being employable as civilians and stop them from being legal gun owners.
This is clearly driven by an assumption that any soldier who refuses the vaccine is not ideologically aligned with Biden and desire to ruin these people’s lives forever.
This is obscenely vindictive for a Commander in Chief to do to his troops.
Also, I feel the need to point out that the punishment for refusing a vaccine in the Army is higher than the punishment for warning an enemy about an attack through back channels or authorizing a drone strike on an aid worker’s family that kills seven kids.
Agree, but Biden is not a “Commander-in-Chief”! He is the Cheater-in-Chief, and we all know that it is Hussein Obama who is currently controlling the government!
This touches on a bigger point that I think about a lot.
This is essentially cancel culture under a different name. Political opponents are “legally” banned from any form of living. They can’t get jobs, have no rights, and don’t even have small luxuries that they can’t afford anyway.
But they’re still there. And now they’re desperate in a way our generation has never known. What do you think happens then?
“We the people” need to wake up and we need to use our 2nd Amendment right to defend our country and our Constitution from this anti-American tyrannical democrat socialist “Biden-Obama” government!!! They don’t follow the law of the land, why should we?
Damn, disgusting!
If a military member can self identify as a different sex, and automatically get treated as a member of that sex, why can’t they just self identify as vaccinated?
Asking for a friend.
I’m pretty certain a DD requires a trial by court marshal. There’s no way the JAG’s have enough resources to pull that off. Someone with military knowledge feel free to correct me if I’m wrong.
What about a “General Discharge”?
I think they are going to try and roll as many out on a Less Than Honorable or Bad Conduct Discharge as possible, but I suspect any well respected, high ranking officers (like LTC Scheller) will be court martial as an example to the others.