Among the visitors to the Lexington-Rockbridge-Buena Vista Democrats’ booth at the Rockbridge Community Festival on Saturday was Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline.
Although Cline greeted us volunteers politely, he dodged questions about when he might hold another town hall meeting in the Sixth District. (His last townhall was in November 2024.) Asked when the next town hall will be, he said he would let us know.
He also complained about a sign at our booth calling out his vote for Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.” He said it was untrue.
However:
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that the BBB will increase the number of Americans without health insurance by 10 million by 2034, due largely to cuts of almost $1 trillion in Medicaid.
The Center for Medicare Advocacy reports that several provisions of the BBB directly target Medicare beneficiaries, including:
- New restrictions on lawfully present immigrants
- Blocking improvements to Medicare Savings Programs
- Blocking nursing home staffing standards
- Limiting Medicare’s ability to negotiate drug prices
Cline said we should remove the sign.
We didn’t.
Gene Zitver is the editor of ClineWatch.