Author: gzitver

Cline bill would weaken antitrust enforcement

Can you spot the key phrase in Congressman Cline’s Facebook post above?

It’s “Trump DOJ.”

A Reuters report provides necessary context about the “One Agency Act.”

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission’s merger-busting, antitrust enforcement powers are coming under threat as conservatives look to harness President-elect Donald Trump’s support for limiting government.

On Tuesday, U.S. Representative Ben Cline, a Republican from Virginia, reintroduced the One Agency Act, which would remove the FTC’s antitrust authority and give it to the U.S. Department of Justice. The two agencies have shared federal antitrust jurisdiction, intended to guard against anticompetitive business behavior, for more than 100 years.

Outgoing FTC Chair Lina Khan’s skeptical stance towards company mergers and expansive view of the agency’s authority drew criticism from some in the business community and fueled Republican arguments to dial back the agency’s power.

Cline’s proposal – which was hinted at in the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 policy platform – will test Congress’ willingness to streamline the U.S. government through legislation, a key pillar of Trump’s agenda.

Cline, who met in December with Trump’s government efficiency consultants Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, said his bill fits with their efforts.

…..

Critics say the two agencies are a successful tag-team. U.S. Representative Jerry Nadler, a Democrat from New York, called the bill an attempt to “abolish the antitrust police” at a hearing in April.

Nadler warned at the hearing that the bill would effectively repeal the FTC’s broad authority to protect against unfair methods of competition under the FTC Act, which it used in 2024 to sue pharmacy benefit managers and pass a ban on worker noncompete agreements.

Putting the DOJ in charge of antitrust enforcement would hand the White House more control, because the president can fire political appointees at the DOJ, which is an executive branch agency. The FTC, in contrast, is a bipartisan independent agency, whose commissioners can only be fired with cause.

So Cline is doing the bidding of Trump’s chief oligarchs, who (of course) want to weaken antitrust enforcement. Do they expect that if Cline’s bill passes, the “Trump DOJ” will be more corporate-friendly– and less consumer-friendly and less worker-friendly– than the more independent FTC?

I think we know the answer to that.

Cline compares his brain unfavorably to Musk’s

In an interview with NewsMax, Congressman Cline talked about a recent meeting he and other Republican members of Congress had at Mar-a-Lago with the incoming Trump administration’s chief oligarch Elon Musk.

“It’s always exciting to be in a conversation with Elon Musk,” Cline said. “His brain works at levels that are far above any of mine or any of my colleagues. … The bureaucracy is huge. It’s going to take someone like Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy to actually tackle all of the bureaucracy, that is going to push back.”

I think Cline is being too modest. Both his brain and Musk’s brain seem to operate at about the same level when it comes to sheer fantasy.

As I posted in November, Cline eagerly agreed with Musk that it was possible to cut $2 trillion in government spending—more than Congress’s entire discretionary budget.

The key to this impossible feat, Cline suggested, is to cut “bureaucracy.”

Since then, however, Musk has backtracked. He said half that amount would be “an epic outcome.”

I have no doubt that Cline’s nimble brain will come to the same conclusion.

Is Cline embarrassed now?

The Washington Post reports:

Former congressman Matt Gaetz (R-Florida) regularly paid for sex, possessed illegal drugs and paid a 17-year-old girl for sex in 2017, according to a 42-page report released by the House Ethics Committee on Monday on President-elect Donald Trump’s former pick for attorney general.

The report cited “substantial evidence” that from 2017 to 2020, Gaetz “regularly paid women for engaging in sexual activity with him,” and from 2017 to 2019, possessed illegal drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, on “multiple different occasions.” The Ethics Committee also investigated a 2018 trip Gaetz made to the Bahamas where the panel found he accepted transportation and lodging in violation of the House rules and laws on gifts.

As we have previously reported, Gaetz (shown here with his pal Congressman Cline at a Conservative Political Action Conference) donated $2,000 to Cline’s 2020 reelection campaign. And when President-elect Trump briefly tried to nominate Gaetz as attorney general in his next administration, before an uproar forced him to withdraw, Cline said of Gaetz:

“He is a warrior against the weaponization of the Justice Department and the lawfare that’s been waged by the Biden administration. So, he knows exactly what has to happen to the Justice Department to fix it.”

Congressman Cline: Please don’t try to tell us you had no inkling of Gaetz’s disgusting and illegal behavior when you accepted his gift and praised his nomination. We won’t believe you.

Do you have the decency to be embarrassed?

Quarter Horse Association donated to Cline’s campaign

If any of our readers are members of the American Quarter Horse Association, they might like to know that the group’s political action committee donated $1,000 to Congressman Cline’s latest reelection campaign.

The contribution came despite Cline’s NO vote on the PAST (Prevent All Soring Tactics) Act, a bill banning the abusive practice of soring horses. He was the only member of Congress from Virginia to vote against the measure.

Cline has a lifetime 0% rating from the Humane Society Legislative Fund.

Cline backs his friend and donor Gaetz for AG

Ben Cline and his pal Matt Gaetz at a CPAC conference in 2021

Despite being credibly accused of having sex with at least one underaged girl and being an all-around scumbag, President-elect Trump’s nominee for Attorney General, Matt Gaetz, has received the support of his pal Congressman Cline.

“He is a warrior against the weaponization of the Justice Department and the lawfare that’s been waged by the Biden administration,” Cline argued. “So, he knows exactly what has to happen to the Justice Department to fix it.”

Although Cline has expressed support for some of Trump’s appointments on his X account, he hasn’t said a word on his social media about the nomination of the utterly unqualified Gaetz. So I am pleased to help him get this information to his Sixth District constituents, whether he likes it or not.

As previously reported here, Cline received a generous $2,000 donation for his 2020 election campaign from his buddy.