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.
Cline wrote on his website:
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.
Unfortunately Ben Cline is not among them.
Cline Watch 