Column: Rep. Wittman is following, not leading for his district

To hear my congressman tell it, nothing extraordinary is happening in the United States these days. In a recent telephone town hall, Republican U.S.

Rep. Rob Wittman of Virginia assured those of us on the call that things are running smoothly in Washington and he is doing his job. “Telephone town hall” is an oxymoron dreamed up by spin doctors.



The irony of Wittman’s refusal to face those he represents in a face-to-face forum with live questions did not seem to register with him. Instead, he worked to downplay the gravity of what is currently taking place. You may think President Donald Trump is making America great again.

You may think Trump is purposely causing a worldwide recession with tariffs and destroying democracy with executive orders. In either case, Wittman sounded naïve trying to convince listeners that there is nothing to see here. A constituent asked Wittman about the planned purge of hundreds of thousands of federal government employees by unelected “government special employee” and billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

“We are monitoring very closely what DOGE is doing and making sure that they are following all the requirements,” answered Wittman. This qualifies as political milquetoast for a guy whose constituency includes roughly 20,000 federal employees. Besides digging into employees’ personal information, DOGE has, with Trump’s encouragement, reportedly gained access to Internal Revenue Service files that could include detailed financial records of American citizens.

Wittman’s answer to a constituent worried about her privacy? “We’ve been following this very closely.” Following, not leading. Wittman and other Republicans have offered little criticism of Musk’s job cuts.

They have not constrained Trump’s sabotage of the U.S. economy or his abuse of constitutional rights and the legal separation of powers.

Shortly after Wittman assured the “telephone town hall” that he was closely monitoring the propriety of job cuts, Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Trump’s secretary of Health and Human Services, announced 10,000 dismissals.

Those firings will hurt research and the delivery of benefits. Musk has fired so many IRS employees that some economists believe the agency will collect significantly less tax revenue this year than last year. That could mean public service cuts or additions to the national debt Wittman says he wants to tame.

Wittman told constituents there would be no cuts in Social Security benefits, but DOGE has fired enough people at the Social Security Administration to make it harder for retirees to talk to a human being. We now live in an existential fight for American democracy that calls for leaders to stand up for those they represent, not bow to a president who would be king. This includes thousands of Wittman’s constituents who just lost 10% of their retirement savings in a four-day stock market meltdown caused by Trump’s tariff plans.

Federal job cuts threaten the professional and family lives of thousands of Wittman’s constituents. Those cuts will wound the economic health of a district that depends on federal jobs and federal contracts. Wittman told listeners on his call that the U.

S. Constitution guarantees “everybody” due process of law. But the congressman said nothing about masked immigration enforcement officers who now seize legally documented people from homes and streets and hold them without charges.

Sign up for Viewpoints, an opinion newsletter Meanwhile, Wittman complained about the size of the national debt. He never mentioned that Republicans plan to make permanent tax cuts to corporations and the richest Americans which economists warn will add trillions to that debt. A constituent listening in perfectly summed up Wittman’s performance in America’s worst constitutional and financial crisis in eight decades.

“I don’t see you using your voice to say, ‘Stop. Let’s not have things go the way they’re going,’” she said. That is because like so many Republicans facing Trump’s policies, Wittman talks one game, but plays another.

Jim Spencer of Williamsburg is a former Virginian-Pilot reporter, Daily Press columnist and Minnesota Star Tribune Washington correspondent..