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., 2024-07-04
E.g., 2024-07-04

If the FDA has its way, you will have to go to a doctor for prescriptions for many supplements and then pay $80 for a supplemental which presently costs $10 at a health food store.

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The Nutritional Health Alliance (NHA).
01/01/1994 | Full Details

Repeatedly attempt[ing] to impose unnecessarily stringent standards that would leave many if not most supplement companies with no practical choice but to close their doors.

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Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT).
01/01/1994 | Full Details

I don't have time to beat around the bush. The health-care plan as proposed by Mrs. Clinton is socialism. There's no soft way to peddle it. There is not other way to describe it.

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Rush Limbaugh.
12/16/1993 | Full Details

The most devastating indictment of the president’s proposal is that it threatens to destroy virtually everything about American health care that’s worth preserving. Under the plan’s layers of regulation and oversight, even seeing a doctor whenever you like will be no easy matter: access to physicians will be carefully regulated by gatekeepers; referrals to specialists will be strongly discouraged; second opinions will be almost unheard of; and the availability of new drugs will be limited.

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William Kristol, The Project for a Republican Future.
12/02/1993 | Full Details

We have arrived at socialized medicine in America. I do not report this as either a good or bad event but simply as something that has happened with hardly anyone realizing it. This is the first result -- and probably the most important -- of the national health care debate launched last week by President Clinton. Our politics and economy will never again be the same.

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Robert J. Samuelson, Washington Post.
09/29/1993 | Full Details

“This plan forces us to buy our insurance through new mandatory government health alliances…” (Louise) “Run by tens of thousands of bureaucrats…” (Harry) “Having choices we don’t like is no choice at all…” (Louise) “They choose, we lose” (Together).

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Health Insurance Association of America’s (HIAA) 1993 “Harry and Louise” TV ads.
09/09/1993 | Full Details

The punitive taxes included in this budget will do nothing to stimulate the economy. Deficit reduction will come from reducing spending and tightening our belts much like private citizens must do. Government must stop living beyond its means and then raising taxes to justify the additional spending. As I write this, the Senate considers the plan. I can only hope the Members of the other body who support this largest tax increase in American history know in advance that they must explain to their constituents how taking more of their hard-earned money will help stop runaway budget deficits as spending continues to increase.

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James T. Walsh (R-NY), Congressional Record.
08/06/1993 | Full Details

This budget calls for new taxes on gasoline and on Social Security, and yet President Clinton as a candidate condemned such taxes. Supporters say this budget reduces spending and will begin to get a handle on the national debt, yet even the President acknowledges that under this budget Federal spending will actually increase more than 20 percent over the next 5 years. And worse, the national debt will actually grow by $1 billion a day. But most importantly, this budget is a job killer-pure and simple.

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Bob Franks (R-NJ), Congressional Record
08/05/1993 | Full Details

This is really the Dr. Kevorkian plan for our economy. It will kill jobs, kill businesses, and yes, kill even the higher tax revenues that these suicidal tax increasers hope to gain.

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Rep. Thomas Ewing (R-IL), Congressional Record.
08/05/1993 | Full Details

He is smooth and he is slick and he is a great teleprompter performer, but regardless of how convincing the President may be, this bill is still tax-and-spend, pure and simple. It will not cut the deficit. It will not create jobs. And it will not cut spending. And no matter what you say, you are not going to be able to hide the tax increases in this bill from the American people come next April 15.

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Rep. Jim Bunning (R-KY), Congressional Record.
08/05/1993 | Full Details

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