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., 2024-03-18
E.g., 2024-03-18

I think you cannot write a law for every extreme situation. We just have to write the best law we can that has common sense in it.

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Jane Cunningham, state senator from Missouri (R )
02/23/2011 | Full Details
Law(s): Child labor | Themes: Unnecessary

My aim is to put back some common sense. We're not doing students any favor by telling them, 'You cannot work.'

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Jane Cunningham, state senator from Missouri (R )
02/15/2011 | Full Details

The hour restrictions are so tight. There are many jobs where you can work after 9 p.m.

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Jane Cunningham, state senator from Missouri (R )
02/15/2011 | Full Details

As reprehensible as child labor is, and as much as it ought to be abandoned — that's something that has to be done by state legislators, not by Members of Congress. This may sound harsh, but it was designed to be that way. It was designed to be a little bit harsh. Not because we like harshness for the sake of harshness, but because we like a clean division of power, so that everybody understands whose job it is to regulate what.

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U.S. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT)
01/14/2011 | Full Details

Recently, Washington has been great at issuing overly complex and ineffective regulations—breeding uncertainty among America’s job creators and stifl ing their ability to grow the economy. To add insult to injury, Congress and the administration are considering myriad new regulations to pile on top of business owners, threatening to make it even harder to keep their doors open.

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Chamber of Commerce ad in Politico. 2010
01/01/2011 | Full Details

We have wandered too far off the path envisioned by our Founding Fathers of a government with few and defined powers. Government was supposed to be about doing only a few things; today government is about doing nearly everything. It has intruded in our business and personal lives in ways unimaginable to the wise men who gathered in Philadelphia in the sweltering summer of 1787. And to increasingly little positive benefit.

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Chamber of Commerce’s “This Way To Jobs Campaign.” 2010
01/01/2011 | Full Details

[Health reform] will destroy the country [because] in the next year or so [America will have to] dramatically cut the military because we can’t pay for it.

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Former Senator Rick Santorum (R-PA)
10/23/2010 | Full Details

This is the largest tax increase in American history….the looming tax hike will make it harder for small businesses to keep their doors open. These are not only the people who create jobs, but not only that, they represent the spirit of America.

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The Glenn Beck Show, Fox News.
10/22/2010 | Full Details

[A dramatic increase in regulation under the Obama administration is] threatening to short-circuit our recovery and undermine our long-term growth....More importantly , it is suffocating the entrepreneurial spirit so vital to America’s success.

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Thomas Donohue, President of the Chamber of Commerce
10/14/2010 | Full Details

America is sinking under the crushing weight of the ever-expanding regulatory state. This burden threatens to disrupt our recovery, hamper long-term growth, undermine our global competitiveness, and suffocate the entrepreneurial spirit so vital to America's success.

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Thomas Donohue, President of the Chamber of Commerce
10/14/2010 | Full Details

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