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.
Gentlemen, most of the home owners want to keep their credit. We are not asking that we escape our responsibilities; we just want to find a way to pay, and we do not want you to make it harder for us.
Believe such legislation would eventually seriously injure home-financing institutions which have been in existence in the country over a hundred years.
I do not see that it is the function of Congress to tell me whether I shall take a straight loan or whether I shall take an amortized loan. It does not make any difference to me whether you tell it to me in blunt terms through officials here in Washington, or whether you so rig the financial market that I must steer the course that you lay out for me. I do not think that we ought to expect such legislation from legislators who represent a party that stands for initiative, for the rights of the States, and the rights of the community. I do not think we are going to get it from them.
If you let us alone and not throw on us all of the burden that is involved in this bill, we can work out our problem. The collective action of home owners of America, dealing with decent and reputable and fair-minded business men, will work out our common problems.
I say that when you set up that type of corporation and you set up that sort of insurance company and operate it in the manner proposed, you are going to close every building association in the United States. They cannot survive under it to save their souls. This is the heart of this whole bill.
Mr. Chairman, the country does not want to give away its birthright to capital, and this sets up capital and a political organization at the top of it. It is the marriage of capital and politics, and you cannot escape it to save your life.
How much limitation do you put on your Federal Reserve in running your banking business of this country? There is no limit to that.
We do not think there is either any social or any economic necessity for the insurance of present mortgages.
A mortgage is just one of the things that you cannot guarantee. When the real-estate market completely goes to the bad and crashes, there is not money enough in this country or any other country to sustain mortgages at an even level. They have got to take the go-down, just the same as any other security or any other commodity.
…this board of 5 to 7 men in Washington can determine what is socially desirable housing in every community in the land, and under the powers conferred they can make their judgments effective. Call it by any name you choose the smell of such regimentation of American homes will be the same in the nostrils of the American home-owning public.
