Republicans Quotes

We must also recognize that mandated benefits may limit the ability of some employers to provide other benefits of importance to their employees. The number of innovative benefit plans will continue to grow as employers endeavor to attract and keep skilled workers. Mandated benefits raise the risk of stifling the development of such innovative benefit plans.

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President George H.W. Bush’s message from his first veto of the FMLA.
06/29/1990 | Full Details | Law(s): Family Medical Leave Act

The ADA also mandates job accommodation financed by employers. Employers will be forced to restructure existing facilities, restructure jobs, hire readers, signers, and assistants in order to accommodate over 900 physical and mental impairments. This converts a civil rights measure into a mandated benefits program for the disabled. It is time we ask ourselves what `reasonable accommodation' means for American businesses. The real cost to the nation would be higher costs of production, fewer jobs, lower real wage rates, lower levels of output and income, and a weaker competitive position for the U.S. business in the world market place.

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Ron Marlenee (R-MT) speaking to the House of Representatives. The Americans With Disabilities Act.

The heavy hand of government in the activities of Americans When we have a lot of people in Eastern Europe trying to throw off the yoke of central government, now might be the time to ask Americans 'How much government do you want?'

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George Bush Sr.’s Agriculture Secretary Clayton Yeutter. The New York Times

When we pass minimum wage legislation it says one thing, Mr. Speaker: It says to the young black in the inner city, it says to the handicapped individual, it says to the young person looking for a first time job, unless you can meet a minimum standard, we will pass a law that says it is a violation of the Federal statute to hire such a person. Mr. Speaker, we can calculate to a certainty the number of people that we will unemploy by raising the minimum wage to various levels. At $4.50, at $5, at $6, hundreds of thousands of people are denied access to the job market. Minimum wage laws create unemployment. That is a mean, vicious thing to do.

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Bob McEwen (R-OH), Congressional Record.
314310/31/1989 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

This is going to be a lawyer’s paradise.

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Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC), New York Times.

Youth unemployment is three times the overall unemployment rate, and for minority youth it is much, much higher. Let us not make the problem worse by enacting a minimum wage which denies young people jobs.

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Arthur Ravenel (R-SC), Congressional Record.
05/17/1989 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

We say we're trying to help the working poor while we actually will be helping young part-time workers. There is one thing, however, upon which there is agreement. Economists from all persuasions agree that increasing the minimum wage will mean lost jobs and it will mean inflation.

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Harris Fawell (R-IL), Congressional Record.
05/16/1989 | Full Details | Law(s): Minimum Wage

The whole CAFE scheme is, in terms of public policy, ridiculous, and has the practical effects of driving U.S. jobs abroad.

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Former transportation Secretary Jim Burnley, The New York Times. April, 1989.

If the CAFE standard is too high, it adversely affects workers, manufacturers, and consumers alike.

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Transportation Secretary Jim Burnley, Toronto Globe & Mail.

Right-to-Know: Much Pain, Little Gain [for Small Businesses]

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The title of an article by Kevin L. Bromberg, Assistant Chief Counsel for Energy and Environment at the Bush Administration’s Office of Advocacy of the Small Business Administration. Only date available: September/October 1988.

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