Ben Cline defeated in bid to take control of Republican Study Committee

Sixth District Congressman Ben Cline came up short on Friday in his bid to become the next chairman of the Republican Study Committee.

Texas Republican August Pfluger won the chair position in an 80-57 vote.

Pfluger has headed up the RSC’s energy task force in the current Congress.

Cline has been the leader of the committee’s budget task force, which earlier this year came up with a plan to raise the retirement age to 69 to be able to slash Social Security spending by $1.5 trillion over the next decade, and to cut Medicaid, Children’s Health Insurance Program and Affordable Care Act marketplace subsidy spending by $4.5 trillion over the next decade.

This is what what the White people voted for.

“Honored to be able to lead it,” Pfluger said. “There’s a lot of work in front of us. But I think that what this organization has stood for for over 50 years is to be the conservative conscience of the Republican conference.”

Past RSC chairs have included the current House Speaker, Mike Johnson, and a former vice president, Mike Pence.