In December I wondered if then Congressman-elect Cline would shock us by supporting H.R. 1, a Democratic-backed bill to “create automatic voter registration, require paper ballots, reduce partisan gerrymandering, limit big money in politics, require political groups to disclose donors, bar Congress members from serving on corporate boards and require presidents to disclose their tax returns.”
We have our answer.
I don’t know if Cline read the entire bill– the For the People Act of 2019– before passing such a harsh judgment on it, but you can read it here and see a summary of it here.
Never one to pass up a chance to score cheap political points, Congressman Cline has joined with two Republican colleagues in a statement about a now-defeated bill in the Virginia General Assembly on late-term abortions introduced by Del. Kathy Tran.
“We ask Governor Northam to clarify his position and answer this question: Are you supportive of Del. Tran’s bill or against it? If against, it is critical that you voice your opposition and work with the General Assembly on provisions that protect life. We will be standing with the Members of the General Assembly who stand against the Repeal Act.
“We, the Virginia Republican Congressional Delegation, are united in our opposition to this bill. We reject this as a blatant attack on human life that allows easy abortions up until the point of birth. This assault on the most vulnerable among us is both heartbreaking and abhorrent. We firmly denounce this legislation and ask our colleagues in the General Assembly to do the same. This is not who we are as a Commonwealth.”
The rightwing hysterical-outrage machine is in full gear.
Late-term abortions are permitted in Virginia only when the mother’s life is at grave risk. Tran’s bill would have lifted some restrictions; instead of requiring three doctors to sign off on the procedure, it would have required only one doctor. It also would have removed language requiring that the danger to the mother was “substantial and irremediable.”
On WTOP radio’s “Asks the Governor” program Wednesday, NBC4’s Julie Carey asked Northam whether he supported Tran’s bill.
Northam expressed support and spoke broadly about his belief that politicians should leave abortion decisions to women and their doctors.
But his comments about third-[trimester] abortions set off critics. The procedures, he said, are “done in cases where there may be severe deformities. There may be a fetus that’s not viable. So in this particular example, if a mother’s in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. And then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother.”
…..
Ofirah Yheskel, a spokeswoman for Northam, said the Republicans were mischaracterizing the governor.
“No woman seeks a third-trimester abortion except in the case of tragic or difficult circumstances, such as a nonviable pregnancy or in the event of severe fetal abnormalities, and the governor’s comments were limited to the actions physicians would take in the event that a woman in those circumstances went into labor,” she said.
“Attempts to extrapolate these comments otherwise is in bad faith and underscores exactly why the governor believes physicians and women, not legislators, should make these difficult and deeply personal medical decisions,” Yheskel said.
Again: third-trimester abortions are currently legal in Virginia under certain circumstances. Tran’s bill would have required a doctor’s approval for a late-term abortion.
In 2012 Cline supported a bill in the General Assembly defining life as beginning at conception. So it really doesn’t matter to him at what point or for what reason an abortion occurs– he believes it is always murder.
At any rate it seems Cline and Republicans in general are pleased to have something– anything— that might distract attention from the government shutdown fiasco, Trump’s flat-out contradiction of his own intelligence officials on Iran, Russia, ISIS and North Korea, etc.
After President Trump imposed a cruel and unnecessary 34-day government shutdown, only to call it off with nothing to show for it, Congressman Cline’s fealty to Trump is undimmed.
On Friday, President Trump announced an end to the government shutdown based on continued negotiations over the next three weeks to fund a barrier and provide enhanced security along our southern border. The government shutdown lasted 34 days. The brave men and women of the United States Coast Guard, the U.S. Border Patrol, air traffic controllers, meteorologists at the National Weather Service, and many more have been working for more than a month without a paycheck.
Yes, the devotion of the federal workers to their jobs was remarkable and inspiring. I hope Cline now has a new appreciation of the importance of the work they do, and will engage is less simple-minded government bashing. And it would have been a decent gesture for him to meet with TSA agents working without pay at the Roanoke airport or other federal employees in the Sixth District to hear what they had to say about the shutdown for which Trump was proud to claim credit.
President Trump reached out to Democrats throughout the last 34 days in an attempt to find common ground but House Speaker Nancy Pelosi refused to even speak with him. She would not even honor her invitation to allow him to deliver the State of the Union address before a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday. Nancy Pelosi’s stubbornness resulted in the longest shutdown in American history.
Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer met with Trump 18 days into the shutdown. The meeting ended with Trump (not Pelosi or Schumer) walking out. It wasn’t Pelosi’s “stubborness” that caused the shutdown. It was Trump’s reneging on an agreement approved unanimously by the Senate to keep the government open during negotiations on border security– which, after 34 painful days for hundreds of thousands of Americans, is exactly what he settled for.
Republicans in the House have twice voted to re-open the government and put hardworking Americans back on the job, all while securing our border.
Cline confuses “securing our border” with spending billions of dollars for a project which is unanimously opposed by members of Congress who represent districts on the Mexican border, including one Republican. Democrats in the House, along with some Republicans (not including Cline), voted a number of times to re-open the government
It is my hope that Nancy Pelosi will listen to the growing chorus in her own party who believe in enhanced border security and want an end to the partisan politics that put us on this path.
Pelosi has emerged stronger than ever for standing up to Trump and helping to force him to back down on his shutdown. If there is a “growing chorus” of dissent, it’s among Republicans who are getting fed up with Trump’s way of doing things.
The U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation Tuesday evening that seeks to bar President Donald Trump from withdrawing from NATO amid renewed concerns over his commitment to the 29-nation military pact.
In a bipartisan 357-22 vote, the Democrat-led lower chamber sent the Senate the NATO Support Act, which would prohibit the use of federal funds to withdraw from the 70-year-old alliance. Twenty-two Republicans voted no, while 28 Republicans and 26 Democrats did not vote.
Beyond asserting Congress’ power of the purse, the bill affirms support for NATO and its mutual defense clause, for Montenegro’s accession, for “robust” U.S. funding for the European Deterrence Initiative and for the goal that each member nation spend at least 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense by 2024.
Among the 22 Republicans who voted against this measure was Congressman Ben Cline. Every Democrat who voted supported it.
Rep. Jimmy Panetta, D-Calif., sponsored the bill with backing from House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel, D-N.Y. At a press conference Tuesday, the lawmakers praised the alliance for its role in ending the Cold War and in supporting U.S.-led operations in Iraq and Afghanistan today.
“What we have to realize is that NATO is not just a transactional relationship.” Panetta said. “Our sole focus can’t just be on who pays what and who gets what. Being a member of NATO is not like being a member of a country club.”
Engel called splintering the NATO alliance one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s top goals.
“That’s why its so disturbing, so troubling to see the United States sending mixed signals about the alliance or treating it as a burden,” Engel said.
“This bill reiterates Congress’ commitment to NATO and would prohibit withdrawal from NATO. It sends a clear message to the administration that this branch of government supports the alliance,” Engel said in a floor speech ahead of the vote.
Trump has bashed the alliance over burden sharing, made overtures to Putin and said he believes he has the authority to pull out of NATO if he chooses — even as his administration has worked to support the alliance.
The bill had four Republican cosponsors, including Texas Rep. Will Hurd, who tweeted after the vote, “These recent votes show that there is overwhelming bipartisan support from Congress, a coequal branch of government, to value our allies and stand up to our enemies.”
Since Cline offers no explanation for his vote on his website, his Facebook page or his Twitter account, it’s impossible to know his reasons for voting as he did. Is he so anxious to affirm his loyalty to President Trump that he feels it necessary to oppose anything that might be seen as a challenge to Trump’s positions– no matter how wrong-headed and potentially dangerous those positions might be?
If anyone thought Congressman Cline was sincere when he talked about bipartisanship and compromise, they should take 16 minutes to listen to a recent interview conducted by rightwing radio talk show host John Fredericks.
In his second interview by Fredericks since his election to Congress (his first was in December), Cline leaves no doubt that he believes the interests of the people of the Sixth District are identical with whatever President Trump happens to want and that the only compromising necessary is to be done by Nancy Pelosi and the Democrats.
Lowell Feld of Blue Virginia provides a list of some of Cline’s most egregious comments, along with some pertinent observations:
First, Cline appears to agree with the host that Democrats are “pushing for open borders” as part of a nefarious plot to “replenish their voting base.”
Cline DEFINITELY agrees that Democrats are supposedly “pandering to the far left,” that supposedly “the Democrat [sic] Party has been hijacked – you could see that in the Sixth District this year, my opponent was a far-left Bernie Sanders supporter, wanted Medicare for All…was not interested in securing the border with a wall.” (factual note: 70% of Americans support Medicare for All, including 52% of Republicans – the people Cline says are “far left” – while the “wall” is opposed by 58% of Americans)
Cline bizarrely claims that the only reason freshmen Democrats are refusing to negotiate on Trump’s unpopular, nonsensical “wall” is that they are “too scared” of Nancy Pelosi…including that “she’ll cut off your head before you even feel the pain.” Alrighty…
Cline goes completely over the top/off the deep end, sounding like a far-right radio host or whatever, ranting that “Nancy Pelosi can’t operate a speaker as business as usual and just jet off on her trip with her Democrat [sic] colleagues to go visit the troops and pose for photos while Washington is shut down and the federal government is shut down back here.” …
Cline (who can’t seem to stop blaming Pelosi for everything) launched into this particular rant as he evaded a question about whether members of Congress should get paid during the government shutdown (clearly he is continuing to take his salary). Instead he said he favored “creating some pain” for members and suggested that preventing Pelosi from visiting American forces in Afghanistan (hardly a vacation junket) was a way of making her feel pain. What pain (if any) Cline himself is suffering he did not specify.
Cline suggests that Trump consider doing the State of the Union from “the border,” maybe at a “stadium in Arizona or Texas.” LOL
Cline claims the concept of a “reasonable freshmen Democrat” is a “near extinct personality,” as they supposedly all ran “to the left and are products of the left.” Again, LOL.
Cline vows to have Trump’s back, claims that Trump has stood for the “rule of law” (that’s beyond laughable, of course, as this administration has been almost completely lawless/an assault on the rule of law) and “protection of the American people.” Uhhhh.
Discussing his appointment to the House Education and Labor Committee, Cline made clear that his hostility to organized labor remains intact.
“The Democrats are going to put all kinds of labor union bills through and I’m anxious to stand up for the right of the worker.” He then explained what he really means: “I don’t support forced unionism.” In other words, Cline will continue to defend “right to work” laws which allow workers to receive the benefits of union representation without having to help support the union that negotiates for those benefits.
(Cline should recall that voters in large parts of the Sixth District– including heavily Republican areas– opposed his effort in 2016 to embed “right to work” in Virginia’s constitution.)
As for education, Cline said, “We need to reduce and eliminate [???] the federal role in our education system.” Does this include the millions of dollars in federal aid to public schools in the Sixth District which support reading programs and professional development activities for teachers, among other services?
On Wednesday Congressman Cline posted on his Congressional website:
Congressman Ben Cline (VA-06) applauded U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue’s announcement today (January 16) that 40 Farm Service Agency offices in Virginia, including several serving the Sixth District, will temporarily re-open to provide essential services.
“Agri-businesses in the Sixth Congressional District depend on access to capital to manage their operations and keep their businesses running without disruption,” Cline said. “Secretary Perdue and the Trump Administration have made the right decision to provide essential services that will minimize the impact on our producers with existing farm loans. FSA offices will be open for three days to assist farmers with processing certain payments, servicing loans, and to provide other specific services.”
USDA announced today that FSA offices will re-open on January 17, 18, and 22 to provide certain services.
It’s good that Sixth District farmers will have access to some vital services for a few days during the Republican-enabled government shutdown. But what Cline fails to mention is that FSA employees are being called back to work without pay— and without any idea of when they will finally receive it. And of course he doesn’t reveal that he joined the overwhelming majority of Republicans in voting against a bill to fund the FSA and other crucial government services that have nothing to do with immigration or border security.
One more thing, Congressman Cline: if the Trump administration had made “the right decision,” this disastrous shutdown would never have happened.
Today would have been the 90th birthday of the Reverend Martin Luther King, and we are still striving to achieve Dr. King’s vision of a Nation “where our children will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.” Earlier today, I spoke to members of the American Jewish Committee (AJC) at their “Day at the Capitol.” I joined a bipartisan group of Representatives who assured the AJC audience that we stand united against anti-Semitism and in defense of the Jewish people and the Nation of Israel.
I then joined my House colleagues in voting for House Resolution 41, which denounced white supremacy, white nationalism, and the racist remarks of Rep. Steve King. Republican Leader McCarthy made the correct decision yesterday to remove Rep. King from his committees, and I hope that the Republicans of Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District will, in determining whether or not to nominate Congressman King for re-election next year, reflect on our first Republican President, Abraham Lincoln, who stood for a Nation “dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.”
I am proud to stand with my colleagues, both Democrat and Republican, in condemning racism and in supporting President Lincoln’s fervent prayer that “government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
I appreciate Cline’s willingness to denounce white supremacy and call out Steve King by name for his hateful comments. It’s a refreshing contrast to his predecessor Bob Goodlatte, who appointed King chair of the House Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution and Civil Justice and called him “well-suited” for the position. King’s racism was evident years ago, but Goodlatte and many other Republicans chose to overlook it.
But as the Republican-enabled government shutdown drags on, Cline might want to think about what Martin Luther King– a true friend of labor— would have said about forcing people to work for weeks (or longer) without badly-needed pay to support themselves and their families.
More than 7,000 federal employees live in Virginia’s Sixth Congressional District. Thousands of them have been furloughed or have been working without pay since the Trump-imposed government shutdown began on December 22.
On Friday these employees missed their first paychecks of the shutdown, leaving many of them wondering how to meet basic expenses for food, rent, mortgages and child care.
But there’s no sign that Congressman Cline has taken the slightest interest in their fates. On Friday evening he attended the Woodstock Fire Department Spaghetti Dinner. That was a good thing to do. But perhaps he could follow the example of Congresswoman Elaine Luria and also meet with some of the Transportation Security Administration agents at the Roanoke airport who have been working without pay since December 22 to protect the safety of airline passengers and crews.
(Congresswoman Luria has said she won’t take any of her Congressional pay until the shutdown is over. Several persons have contacted Cline’s office to see if he is doing the same, but have not received responses.)
Meanwhile Cline stands loyally behind President Trump, suggesting that the solution to the shutdown is in the hands of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, The best he can come up with is a lame joke and a mild suggestion that Republicans might be willing to compromise on Trump’s demands.
“I’m happy to call it Nancy’s border protection barrier – it doesn’t have to be called a wall – if that satisfies her,” Cline added. “And, on our side, the president might not get $5.6 billion for the wall that he wants. It might be 5. It might be 4.6.”
In fact Trump has shown no willingness to be flexible on the amount, and even rejected an effort by Vice President Pence to arrange a compromise.
As border security workers being forced to work throughout the shutdown, some unions are reporting that their employees are being overworked and understaffed. Carlos Favela, a spokesman for a border patrol union in El Paso, Texas, told the Los Angeles Times that “our agents are being stretched thin.”
Away from the border, federal courts and immigration judges who were already backlogged in over 800,000 cases before the shutdown have all been furloughed. Pending cases and hearings will now have to be rescheduled, with the average wait time exceeding two years. Essentially, migrants will be able to stay in the United States longer despite Trump’s desire to curb illegal immigration.
And as The Washington Post points out, it’s not just federal workers and their families who are suffering.
There are the tens of thousands of contractors who rely on the federal government but are not full-time employees and are not likely to receive back pay. There are the stores, restaurants and other businesses that are hurting in cities and towns across the country, with workforces dependent on patronage by the government and its employees. The national economy is taking a hit, too, with estimates putting losses so far at $3.6 billion. And U.S. taxpayers are not receiving the government services they pay for, such as food inspections or museum exhibits or care for precious national parklands.
The longer the shutdown persists — and Mr. Trump has blithely talked about months or even years — the more the damage will compound. It shouldn’t come to that. Republicans in Congress who see the harm that is being done to their constituents need to work with Democrats to end this intolerable situation by reopening the government.
For all of Congressman Cline’s pious words about bipartisanship and compromise, he made clear in a Facebook post after President Trump’s misleading speech to the nation on Tuesday that he has no interest in either.
We must secure the border. Keep fighting for the Rule of Law and what is right, President Trump, and the American people will support you.
Cline posted a clip of Democratic Senator Chuck Schumer speaking about the need to control illegal immigration.
But Schumer was speaking in the context of supporting comprehensive immigration reform, including a pathway to citizenship for millions who are already here illegally. Many Republicans oppose this, falsely equating it with “amnesty.” I hope Cline is not among them, but I wouldn’t be surprised if he is.
And nowhere does Schumer say that a “wall” is the most effective way of preventing illegal immigration, let alone suggest that the government should be shut down until a wall is funded.
Even though four out of every 10 voters in the Sixth District supported Cline’s Democratic opponent in the November election; even though Democratic candidates for Congress got 8.6 million more votes than Republicans nationwide; even though 65 percent of voters oppose Trump’s government shutdown to secure funding for a wall; Cline insists that “the American people” will support Trump if he continues to keep large and vital parts of the government closed until he gets his way.
Congressman Cline: hitching your wagon to Trump’s falling star isn’t just wrong for the people of the Sixth District and the nation; it won’t do you any good either.
On the first day of the 116th Congress, the House of Representatives passed bills to end the Trump-imposed government shutdown which is causing hardship to hundreds of thousands of federal employees.
If Mr. Trump would take the time to check in with what’s happening in the real world, he might read about the divorced Army veteran who’d worked “three jobs to survive” before getting hired as a paralegal at the Federal Trade Commission — and who now has no idea if he’ll make the rent. He could hear from the single mother who says that she’ll have enough for rent — but not for food. He might be moved by the wife of a corrections officer wondering how her family will handle their “mortgage, day care and car payments” while her husband is working without pay. Or by the disabled Air Force vet who, having waited more than a year for “service-connected surgery,” cannot get final approval for her procedure until the shutdown ends.
One package of bills passed by the House (and agreed to by the Senate last year) would reopen nearly all the federal agencies that have been closed since December 22. Another bill would temporarily fund the Department of Homeland Security.
But because of President Trump’s insistence on funding for a border wall (the one Mexico was supposed to pay for), all but a few principled Republicans voted to keep these agencies shut down and thus impose further misery.
Congressman Cline, despite his stated eagerness to end the shutdown, was not among the principled Republicans. And his answers to questions in an interview this morning indicate he won’t be satisfied until Trump is satisfied– whenever that will be.
Cline asserted, “My constituents want to see a wall.” Whether a majority of people in the Sixth District agree with Trump on a wall is questionable, but a better question is: How many of them are willing to continue shutting down large parts of the government to achieve that aim?
If you want to express your opinion to Cline about this or any other matters, you may do so via his website or by calling his office at (202) 225-5431.
Cline Watch 