As a member of the Virginia House of Delegates in 2012, Congressman Cline co-sponsored a bill that would have defined life as beginning at conception– in effect outlawing abortions at any stage of pregnancy and under any circumstances.

Since he became a congressman, Cline has been pleased to act as a demagogue when it comes to late-term abortion.

In April the Republican-controlled Ohio Legislature enacted a law which criminalizes abortions in that state when a fetal heartbeat is detected– and makes no exception for rape or incest.

Prohibiting abortions at the first detectable heartbeat means prohibiting virtually all abortions, said Dr. Michael Cackovic, a specialist in maternal fetal medicine at Ohio State University Medical Center. He said current standard practice, which involves transvaginal ultrasound, can reliably detect a heartbeat five to six weeks into pregnancy.

“Essentially, that’s three to four weeks after conception, or one to two weeks after a missed period,” he said.

A “heartbeat bill” similar to the one in Ohio has been introduced in the House of Representatives. Given his past record, I can only assume that Cline would vote for it if given the chance.

But here’s where tragic real life intrudes on the beliefs of anti-abortion absolutists like Cline.

An 11-year-old rape victim in northwestern Ohio is pregnant, according to news reports, and a highly restrictive state law on abortion signed last month says a girl in her position must carry and deliver her rapist’s baby.

…..

A barely pubescent girl has been impregnated, allegedly, by a 26-year-old man who had sex with her on multiple occasions, and the pure anti-abortion position is that the law should prevent her from terminating her pregnancy unless it’s to save her life or spare her grave bodily harm.

Victims of sex crimes, often children themselves, forced to carry pregnancies to term: this is the logical conclusion of Cline’s pro-birth (as opposed to “pro-life”) position. He should be asked to justify it.

Congressman Cline has announced plans to hold a town hall meeting on Tuesday  April 23 in Buena Vista at American Legion Post 126, 1953 Magnolia Avenue. The meeting is scheduled for 10 to 11:30 a.m., unfortunately an inconvenient time for many people.

According to the announcement:

Constituents planning to attend should register on Eventbright. Citizens of Buena Vista will be given priority regarding comments during the town hall.

Perhaps some of our Buena Vista area readers can take the opportunity to ask Cline about some of the things he has said and done, as chronicled here and elsewhere, since he was sworn in as our representative in Washington.

Update: Cline has also announced plans for a town hall meeting in Daleville on Friday April 26 from 4:30 to 6 p.m.

Congressman Cline’s campaign committee has reported raising $64,160.50 during the first three months of 2019.

Among the donors to Cline’s reelection campaign between January 1 and March 31 are:

• Huntington Ingalls Industries (a shipbuilder for the military): $1,000
• National Association of Health Underwriters (a health insurance company lobby): $1,000
• Toyota Motor Company of North America: $1,000
• Fraternity & Sorority Political Action Committee: $1,000
• Norfolk Southern Corporation: $2,500
• National Rifle Association: $1,000
• Sony Pictures Entertainment: $1,000
• Universal Music Group: $1,000
• The Recording Industry Association of America: $1,000

 

In his latest report to constituents, Congressman Cline wrote that he is co-sponsoring a number of bills.

One of these bills, the Death Tax Repeal Act, is a bill which would benefit farmers and ranchers across the Sixth Congressional District. The men and women who raise our cattle, plant our crops, and feed America know how harmful the death tax has been to families in the agriculture industry. A repeal of this tax allows our working farm families to maintain their small businesses across generations.

“Death tax” is what Republicans like Cline call the federal estate tax. It’s an invented phrase designed to make it sound especially awful. But according to the Tax Policy Center:

[O]nly about 80 small farms and closely held businesses—estates with farm and business assets totaling no more than $5 million and making up at least half of the gross estate—paid any estate tax in 2017. Small farms and businesses will not be subject to the estate tax in 2018 because of the $11.2 million effective exemption under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. The higher exemption amount expires after 2025.

The chances that this tax would affect any family farmers, ranchers or small business owners in the Sixth Congressional District of Virginia are next to nil.

Congressman Cline should devote his legislative efforts to issues of more direct concern to the people he represents.

Congressman Cline on Thursday joined most Republicans in the House of Representatives to vote against an expanded version of the Violence Against Women Act.

The legislation passed easily, 263 to 158, but the divided vote came on what was once a broadly bipartisan measure first passed in 1994. In recent years, partisan rancor over efforts to expand the protections of the legislation have clouded efforts to renew it, and this year, the divide was over gun control.

The provisions would close the so-called boyfriend loophole and bar those under a restraining order or who were convicted of abusing, assaulting or stalking a domestic partner from buying guns. The [National Rifle Association] seized on the new measures and warned Congress that it would track and publish how lawmakers voted, hoping to intimidate Republicans and Democrats in Republican-leaning districts.

[The boyfriend loophole means stalkers and current or former boyfriends or dating partners can still buy and own a gun, even if they’ve been convicted of a domestic violence crime.]

“Do not let the N.R.A. bully you,” Representative Debbie Dingell, Democrat of Michigan, urged her colleagues before the vote, noting that her recently deceased husband, former Representative John Dingell Jr., also a Democrat, was a member of the organization.
…..
Republicans had advocated a clean one-year extension of the current law, which expired in February, arguing that new elements of the legislation were controversial and overreached — in particular, the gun restrictions and language offering additional protections to transgender people.

Cline issued a statement trying to explain his vote against the measure:

H.R. 1585 preconditions grant funding on policies that revictimize women and would curtail the vital tools used by prosecutors and law enforcement to protect victims from harm. It rolls back existing trafficking protections under a grant program intended to help child victims, and it fails to provide religious hiring exemptions for faith-based grant recipients.

These are just a few of the reasons I cannot support this bill, which includes provisions which could actually undermine women’s safety.

Cline provided no evidence to support these claims. I have contacted him asking for the evidence, and will post any response I get.

Cline, who dutifully supports the NRA’s position on every issue, has in turn been generously supported by the the NRA as a candidate for House of Delegates and for Congress.

 

On Wednesday Congressman Cline joined almost all Republicans in the House of Representatives to oppose a resolution calling on the Trump administration to halt its legal attempt to overturn the entire Affordable Care Act.

If successful, the administration’s effort would nullify provisions of the law that protect people with preexisting conditions and allow individuals to remain on their parents’ insurance plans until age 26.

In an interview last week with CBS News, Cline made the dubious claim that “this administration has made health care a priority,” drawing a skeptical reaction from news anchor Anne-Marie Green.

He talked vaguely about “providing more options and more affordability to consumers.”

In fact the Trump administration and Congressional Republicans haven’t come up with a new plan to replace the ACA and won’t even try until after the November 2020 elections– when, Trump believes, he will be reelected and the Republicans will have majorities in both houses of Congress.

Some “priority,” Congressman.

Cline added: “Health care is a priority in my district. It’s rural, the average age is higher. So folks do need health care in my district.” And yet as a member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Cline was a leading opponent of the legislation that expanded Medicaid under the ACA, making it possible for hundreds of thousands of low-income working Virginians to obtain health insurance.

 

Although Congressman Cline (like the rest of us) hasn’t seen more than a few sentences from the nearly 400-page Mueller Report, he seems to know what is and isn’t in it.

Interviewed by CBS News, Cline said, “This was very, very disturbing that so much was investigated, that so much was spent and, you know, they didn’t find a thing.”

(If they didn’t find a thing, it will be especially interesting to see what’s on those 400 pages.)

Nevertheless, Cline joined a unanimous vote by the House of Representatives that “calls for the public release of any report Special Counsel Mueller provides to the attorney general, except to the extent the public disclosure of any portion thereof is expressly prohibited by law.”

On Wednesday Cline joined his fellow Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee to unsuccessfully oppose a subpoena for the full report and the underlying documents.

Committee chair Jerrold Nadler stressed that “some material will have to be redacted before it is released to the public,” but “the committee is entitled and must see all of the material,” as happened in previous special investigations.

Meanwhile The New York Times reports:

Some of Robert S. Mueller III’s investigators have told associates that Attorney General William P. Barr failed to adequately portray the findings of their inquiry and that they were more troubling for President Trump than Mr. Barr indicated, according to government officials and others familiar with their simmering frustrations.

 

After Attorney General William Barr released what he claimed were the “principal conclusions” of the Mueller Report, Congressman Cline was quick to suggest that President Trump was in the clear.

Cline says “all Americans should be pleased with the Mueller Report’s conclusions.” But neither he nor anyone else outside of a handful of people knows what those conclusions are in their entirety.

Cline has said the full report should be released. I hope he stands by that position and that he and the rest of us soon get to see the entire document of more than 300 pages. That means we have yet to see approximately 99.99 percent of the report. Perhaps Cline should reserve judgment– both on its conclusions and on whether it was a waste of money– until we do.

From a report in The Northern Virginia Daily about Congressman Cline’s recent town hall meeting in Front Royal.

Cline was also asked if there is any scenario that he would not support President Donald Trump and the Republican Party. He responded that he swore an oath to support the Constitution and he was not elected to “follow any one person.” He added that Trump is “definitely stirring things up in Washington,” has “challenged the status quo” and asked questions on how the federal government became “broken.”

Cline added that he was elected to represent the 6th District as a whole and he is doing his best to that “each and every day.”

“I will continue to do that with your input. If you disagree with something the president is doing, tell me…I don’t agree with anyone 100 percent of the time,” he said.

If you live in the Sixth District and want to tell Congressman Cline that you disagree with something the president is doing, you can contact him via his website or by phone at (202) 225-5431.

 

Now can you find the political courage to say something about this?

Or this (in the wake of Charleston, Charlottesville, Pittsburgh and more)?

If not, your pious words mean nothing.