Who am I to disagree?
From Congressman Cline’s February 23 newsletter to constituents:
When he’s right, he’s right
Month: February 2026
Cline versus “greenification”
In a recent interview with WFIR Radio, Congressman Cline said a lot of ridiculous things– about the Virginia redistricting referendum, about the activities of ICE, about requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote, about health insurance.
But on the topic of energy, his comments stood out for their self-defeating stupidity.
Cline: “What we’re seeing right now is the greenification [!] of our energy grid, and it’s making costs skyrocket. Everybody’s seeing the impact of Democrats in Virginia putting a Green New Deal on our energy companies, Dominion, and then what’s happening at the federal level, what the Biden administration did. Trump is taking that off. But the Virginia legacy is still there. In fact, they’re doubling down in Richmond on making energy costs higher and making our energy bills worse. So we need to take more action in Washington to address that.”
Question: “But real quickly, is it part of the problem that the energy companies are putting too much of these green energy initiatives on the back of rate payers?”
Cline: “Well, they are the ones being ordered by the state government to shift to solar, to shift to wind, these inefficient means of producing electricity. And then they should be trying to make it as efficient as possible for ratepayers. But at the end of the day, when solar and wind are your sources of power, it’s going to cost a lot of money.”
Contrary to Cline’s assertion, solar and wind are cheaper in the long run than electricity from fossil fuel plants.
Aside from that: Although there is not a single oil well, natural gas well or coal mine in all of Cline’s Sixth District, there are at least 18 companies providing solar supply and installation. They include:
• SolShine Energy Alternatives
• Hurricane Wind Power (solar and wind power)
I’m sure the owners and employees of these companies will be interested to know that the congressman who purports to represent them considers their products and services too inefficient and too expensive.
Cline versus the nonexistent threats
On Thursday I posted about Congressman Cline’s support for the “SAVE America Act,” based on the ridiculous premise that hordes of noncitizens are illegally voting in US elections despite massive evidence to the contrary.
But that’s not the only imaginary danger that Cline is purporting to fight.
Cline has joined other rightwing Congressional Republicans as a member of the “Sharia Free America Caucus.” (Seriously.) In fact there are no communities in the US where Sharia law is enforced and no serious efforts to impose Sharia law anywhere in the US. But Cline and the other Republicans apparently see political advantage in this anti-Muslim scaremongering.
The caucus is led by two Texas representatives, Chip Roy and Keith Self. Anti-Sharia hysteria has emerged in the 2026 Texas Republican primary campaign.
As Cline surely knows, any attempt to legally impose Sharia law (or Christian law or Jewish law) in the US would violate the First Amendment to the Constitution, which states Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.
Meanwhile Cline ignores (or even supports) the real threats to Americans’ health, safety, well-being and freedom imposed daily by the Trump regime.
Cline backs ridiculous “SAVE America Act”
With the support of Congressman Cline and every other Republican, the House of Representatives voted Wednesday for the “SAVE America Act.” It now goes to the Senate, where it is likely to be filibustered by Democrats.
While supposedly designed to prevent non-citizens from voting, it would in fact make voting difficult or impossible for huge numbers of eligible American citizens.
The SAVE America Act is essentially the same as the SAVE Act that Cline and other Republicans tried to push through in 2024. It would require people registering to vote to prove they are American citizens.
Virginia Congresswoman Jennifer McClellan explained her opposition to that bill:
McClellan noted that the only methods to prove citizenship under the SAVE Act “just happen to be the ones that cost money.”
“You won’t be able to use your state driver’s license,” she said, adding that the easiest option “you could use is a passport. It costs money. A lot of Americans don’t have passports.”
McClellan further noted that it can be difficult for some people to obtain their birth certificates, which can be necessary to prove citizenship, and those who have changed their names — for marriage or other reasons — often struggle to “reconcile that in order to prove their citizenship.”
McClellan said the issue is personal, invoking her family’s history with the poll tax.
“Look, I took my oath of office on the Bible in which my father kept his poll tax receipt,” she said. “I am not voting for a modern poll tax just so that they can say they’ve done something to keep noncitizen voters from doing something that is already illegal, punishable by up to five years in federal prison, and that there’s very little evidence is a widespread problem.”
This bill is based on the ridiculous premise that hordes of undocumented immigrants are illegally voting in US elections. For obvious reasons, undocumented people try to keep as low a profile as possible when it comes to the government. How many does Cline think are willing to risk imprisonment or deportation to register and vote?
The Brennan Center for Justice explains:
Imagine you’re an undocumented person living in the United States. You’ve come to this country seeking a better life for you and your family. Or maybe your parents brought you here seeking the same when you were a child. You spend your life living in very real fear that you might be noticed by the government and be deported — perhaps to a country you’ve never known. There’s an election coming up, the outcome of which will surely impact your life. But you know you can’t vote because you’re not a citizen. Would you risk everything — your freedom, your life in the United States, your ability to be near your family — just to cast a single ballot?
Of course you wouldn’t. It’s a federal crime for noncitizens to vote in federal elections. It’s also a crime under every state’s laws. In fact, under federal law, you could face up to five years in prison simply for registering to vote. It’s also a deportable offense for noncitizens to register or vote. And sure, people make bad decisions and commit crimes all the time. But this one is different: by committing the crime, you create a government record of your having committed it. In fact, it’s the creation of the government record — the registration form or the ballot cast — that is the crime. So, you’ve not only exposed yourself to prison time and deportation, you’ve put yourself on the government’s radar, and you’ve handed the government the evidence it needs to put you in prison or deport you. All so you could cast one vote. Who would do such a thing?
Maybe you’re thinking that there are a bunch of noncitizens voting and getting away with it. Again, consider the fact that in order to commit these crimes you create a government record of having committed them. Indeed, anyone can look up your voter history on public voter files. And election officials conduct regular maintenance of these voter lists — in fact, they’re required to by federal law. Moreover, these are crimes that U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officers are instructed to look into during the naturalization process. So, if you ever try to become a citizen, you’ll be caught.
The SAVE America Act is a “solution” to a nonexistent problem. It’s performative nonsense that– in the name of “election security”– would deprive tens of millions of Americans of their democratic rights.
Cline misses, Neguse scores
Congressman Cline and Joe Neguse of Colorado both serve on the House Judiciary Committee.
In a Cline Watch post last month, I observed that Neguse “is everything that Ben Cline isn’t. I mean that as a compliment.”
If you need more proof, compare their questioning of Donald Trump’s appalling attorney general Pam Bondi at a committee hearing on Wednesday.
Here’s Cline trying his best to prop up the increasingly desperate Bondi and Trump:
And here’s Neguse showing them up for incompetent and malevolent hypocrites they are:
Cline’s pathetic I-81 boasting
Perhaps it’s a sign of Congressman Cline’s eagerness to prove he’s doing something for the people of the Sixth District that he’s bragging about obtaining $17 million in federal funds to expand a portion Interstate 81 that runs through the district.
For some purposes, $17 million is a lot of money. Not for highway expansion.
In 2018 the Virginia Department of Transportation estimated the cost of adding an additional lane to I-81 would be between $10 million and $15 million per mile.
So the $17 million that Cline is so proud of obtaining will provide for less than two miles of an additional lane for I-81– a highway that stretches 650 miles in both directions in Virginia alone.
In the comments to one of Cline’s Facebook posts, Abby Schweber wrote:
The I-81 expansion is a massive, multi-year effort composed of 65 separate capital projects and numerous operational improvements throughout the interstate’s 325-mile corridor in Virginia, costing hundreds of millions of dollars. The work started in 2023, when substantial funding was granted by Biden’s Infrastructure Act, which Ben Cline voted against. A lot of the work is already done.
Ben Cline’s tiny little $17 million add-on is his bid to claim credit for work done by others. We are not fooled.
To Cline’s credit, in 2024 he inserted a $42 million earmark in a government funding bill for improvements in the I-81 corridor. The catch: he then voted against the full package.
As Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi noted at the time, Cline was one of dozens of Republicans who chose to “vote no and take the dough.”
Cline blames “paid protesters” for Minnesota violence
Last Friday morning Congressman Cline was one of the speakers at a so-called “town hall” in Staunton sponsored by the rightwing City Elders VA and the Family Foundation. This is the only sort of “town hall” Cline is willing to participate in these days.
The event was not publicized outside of Republican circles, but word got out and some non-supporters attended. One of them got the opportunity to ask Cline a question:
Representative Cline, what are you doing to keep Virginia safe from federal agents who are coming into neighborhoods, shooting people, shooting tear gas and stealing children? We’re seeing this in Minneapolis.
Here is Cline’s response:
In where? Minnesota. Minnesota. Okay, thank you. We were, anytime there is a death, we all are saddened by that and we want to avoid that kind of situation. What I have said throughout this process is as we seek to detain and repatriate those who are not here legally, we have to respect the law enforcement that is trying to perform that action, respect the rule of law, and as I would say exercise your First Amendment right to protest, but don’t interfere with law enforcement and the lawful performance of its duty. And there is action going on in Minnesota that is attempting to interfere with law enforcement as it seeks to perform that duty.
They are violent actions, they are organized, and in many cases, paid to interfere with law enforcement. And my request, my plea to my constituents, and anyone who is seeking to exercise their First Amendment right, please do so peacefully. And please do so in a way that is respectful of law enforcement and does not interfere with them. That’d be my request.
No acknowledgement of the violent actions of the federal agents who murdered two American citizens and brutalized countless others.
But when you claim that protesters are “paid to interfere with law enforcement,” you’d better have solid evidence to back it up.
While we wait for Cline to provide the evidence, let me note that the congressman himself is paid $174,000 a year, and he spends much of each year spouting nonsense like this.
Cline Watch 