After Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline voted with other House Republicans to eliminate federal funding for public broadcasting and to cut foreign aid, he posted this on his X account.
According to the Center for American Progress:
The roughly $8.3 billion in targeted [foreign aid] accounts support U.S. responses to conflict, hunger, disease, and democratic decline—all core tools for advancing American interests and global stability.
So, it’s likely that countless people in other countries will suffer and die as a result of these cuts.
As for the elimination of funds for public broadcasting, that hits a lot closer to home.
Allegheny Mountain Radio is a network of three public radio stations serving Pocahontas County in West Virginia and Bath County and Highland County in Virginia. Bath and Highland are located in the Sixth District that is represented by Cline.
Like many rural public broadcasters, AMR lacks the large and relatively affluent donor base of urban public stations. So, AMR depends on federal funding to cover more than 60 percent of its budget.
With that revenue source (which Cline calls “wasteful”) gone, it’s doubtful that AMR will be able to continue serving its rural listeners.
[General manager Scott] Smith says the radio cooperative helps knit together a region where it isn’t easy to connect because of the mountains and the spotty access to phone and internet. Much of its coverage area lies inside the Monongahela and George Washington and Jefferson national forests. During a nearly 75-mile drive from an interstate to WVMR, which sits in Dunmore, W.Va., an NPR reporter had no internet connection.
Some people here say they really value the news and community information Allegheny Mountain provides. Jay Garber, mayor of the town of Monterey, Va., says the radio remains the fastest way to let citizens know about everything from water main breaks to road closures.
“It’s our only source of local, daily information,” says Garber, sitting in his office along Main Street. “We have a newspaper that’s printed once a week, so without the radio station, we’re kind of in the blind here, locally.”
By voting to undercut a source of vital information for his constituents, Cline has once again proved his utter contempt for the people he purports to represent.
Gene Zitver is the editor of ClineWatch.
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