Cry Wolf Project's blog

By Stephanie Luce. Posted on Huffington Post. December 9, 2010.

For more than 100 years, we've heard opponents "Cry Wolf" when governments tried to establish living wage or minimum wage laws, threatening higher unemployment and inflation. Introductory economic textbooks warn of just that. But fortunately economic analysis has advanced beyond the introductory level. More economists are testing theories once taken for granted, and using better methodologies they are proving wrong those who "Cry Wolf" about living wage laws.

By Samantha Brown. U.S. Chamber Watch. August 26, 2010.

Drilling Down on the U.S. Chamber’s Weak Jobs Arguments

Once again, the U.S. Chamber cries "job-killer!" and once again, the Chamber is found to be crying wolf.

By Pat Garofalo. Published in Think Progress. August 10, 2010.

The Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 are scheduled to expire at the end of the year, and President Obama, just as he did on the campaign trail, has proposed renewing the cuts for all but those in the highest two income tax brackets, allowing tax rates for the wealthiest two percent of Americans to reset to the rate at which they were under President Clinton.

Republicans, however, want to renew all of the cuts, and have been apoplectic about Obama’s plan, claiming that it will kill jobs and cripple small businesses. “This is about stopping a job-killing tax hike on small businesses during tough economic times,” said Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT). “You can’t raise taxes in the middle of a weak economy without risking a double dip in the recession,” said House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH).

If these warnings about double-dip recessions and job-killing tax increases sound vaguely familiar, that’s because they are. TaxVox yesterday pointed to a couple of quotes from Republicans in 1993 employing very similar rhetoric as today’s Republicans, with then Senate Minority leader Bob Dole (R-KS), claiming that “half the tax increase because of the rate increases is going to be paid by small business and they’re not rich,” which is the same false argument employed by today’s Senate Minority Leader, Mitch McConnell (R-KY).