A ruling from a federal judge in Florida to end the mask mandate on planes and other mass transit services should be applauded, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was "overstepping their authority" by keeping the rules in place, Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart said on Newsmax Tuesday.
"If somebody feels more comfortable wearing a mask, for God's sake, do it, but the fact that the federal government can mandate it and you know this is also at the same time that they're trying to eliminate the use of Title 42 on the southern border … it's insanity," the Florida Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report."
The Biden administration, he added, "is the most consistently inconsistent administration that I think clearly I've ever seen in my lifetime. There were a lot of questions about the decision to end Title 42 while also keeping the mask mandate in place, thankfully, that had been lifted.
"I know a lot of parents traveling are breathing a sigh of relief with the fact that they don't have to, you know, fight their toddler to keep the mask on during the flight."
Diaz-Balart also cheered Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis after the state's Department of Education over the weekend rejected 54 math books for containing "prohibited topics" such as references to critical race theory.
"Every time I think that Florida has a great governor and he can't get any better, he gets better, and this is another one of those decisions," he said. "We're talking about math books for kids and the fact that in the math books, they would have critical race theory? You know math books are to teach math. It's pretty simple, right? It's a science.
"Right and wrong answers ... that's what our schools should be focused on, teaching the kids how to read and write."
And DeSantis, Diaz-Balart said, is "spot on and I'm grateful for his leadership in this and everything that he's doing. I'll tell you this is a governor who continues to impress me."
Meanwhile, the governor has announced a special session of Florida's Legislature to discuss ending the tax privileges for The Walt Disney Company, which took issue with the state's Parental Rights in Education Bill, and Diaz-Balart said he thinks there is a valid point to be made that no business should enjoy special benefits.
"I think what the governor and the Legislature are looking at is whether there are businesses in Florida that have special treatment," he said. "In other words [some businesses] are treated differently than other businesses because of their size. I think that's a great thing to look at, and we'll be watching that as well."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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