Quotes

The Cry Wolf Quote Bank chronicles the false predictions and hyperbole by opponents of these laws and protections.  While the issues and specific policies change over time, the rhetoric and themes remained the same.  You can search the Quote Bank for what opponents said to prevent these laws from passing. Using the drop down menus on the right their statements by issue, by specific law, by who said it and by the core themes they evoke.   Elsewhere on the site, you can find articles, studies, and other material that debunks their claims. 

E.g., 2024-03-29
E.g., 2024-03-29

To the extent that it makes the manufacture of asbestos materials in the United States technologically unfeasible or uneconomic, it will force the purchase abroad of products for which there is no-asbestos substitute, with consequential losses in profit, increases in unemployment, and deterioration in the nation’s balance of payments.

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Guy Gabrielson, Jr. President of Nicolet Industries, Incorporated
03/16/1972 | Full Details

Achieving a standard of [5 fibers] will cost millions of dollars and cause a significant number of American jobs to be shifted to foreign workers. Requiring a more stringent standard and requiring unnecessarily frightening labels can have a catastrophic effects on the very people OSHA’s and the industry are attempting to protect, without really solving the human problem.

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J.B. Jobe, Executive vice president of Johns-Manville Corporation, the largest asbestos mining company in the world.
03/16/1972 | Full Details

The proposed limit of two fibers...is impossible to meet....The cost of attempting to reach such a low limit would be astronomical and entirely unrealistic....The added expense would definitely force us out of business and would entail the loss of hundreds of jobs.

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John L. Rainey, President of the American Asbestos Textile Corporation.
03/15/1972 | Full Details

In our opinion, an incalculable and insupportable cost would be required to reduce emissions to the [two] fiber level....it would take considerably more than two years to attain such levels if in fact, they could be reached at all.

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GAF Corporation comment, no specific author.
03/14/1972 | Full Details

Minimally, these actions would generate costs incalculable, yet STAGGERING [format from original].

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Thomas J. Gryl, National Safety Director for Brand Insulations Inc.
02/11/1972 | Full Details

You could wake up with egg on your face if you force a double cost on the consumer.

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Malcolm McDuffle, president of Mohawk Petroleum. The Los Angeles Times.
11/25/1970 | Full Details

I have always maintained that if a program is to be successful, it must... be voluntary... based on need and must not be financed through a payroll tax.

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Sen. Thruston B. Morton (R-KY).
08/08/1965 | Full Details
Law(s): Medicare | Themes: Costs will rise

...the result of such programs in other countries had been over utilization of facilities and rising costs, and that as emphasis shifted from quality to cost, as it must under a publicly financed program, a deterioration in the quality of care is inescapable.

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Dr. Donovan Ward, President, American Medical Association.
04/01/1965 | Full Details
Law(s): Medicare | Themes: Costs will rise

[There is] no demonstrable need for the program.

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Paul D. Hill, International Association of Health Underwriters. May, 1965.
04/01/1965 | Full Details
Law(s): Medicare | Themes: Costs will rise

Medicare would be strictly a tax program, forcing wage earners to pay a substantial in their payroll taxes to finance hospitalization for everyone over 65, including those who are wealthy and millions of others who are already protected with hospital insurance.

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AMA President Dr. Edward R. Annis.
01/08/1964 | Full Details
Law(s): Medicare | Themes: Costs will rise

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