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., 2024-07-06
E.g., 2024-07-06

We have a stagnant economy and there is nothing down the road that makes it look like we're going to have the kind of economic growth that puts people to work.

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Rep. John Kasich (R-OH), CNN.
07/28/1993 | Full Details

I rise today to sound the alarm on a provision of the proposed reconciliation package that has ominous implications for New York City. The proposed reduction of the business-entertainment deductions contained in reconciliation could produce a job loss of at least 15,000 in the New York metropolitan area alone, and hundreds of thousands more job losses in business and tourist centers across America. The provision is, in effect, a new tax…If adopted, this provision would inflict deep wounds on New York City's second largest industry-tourism. Many experts fear that with the new tax, companies would drastically scale back use of meals and entertainment as part of doing business. That would directly affect restaurants, hotels, and theaters and trigger adverse ripple effects in industries like catering and conventions. New York is the premier arts and business center in the United States, so its economy depends heavily on business and entertainment. This reform would not only hurt the business community; it would also hurt the beleaguered arts community….The economic repercussions will be felt all across America: from New York City to Chicago to Las Vegas to Hawaii. As an export product, travel and tourism accounts for 11 percent of total U.S. exports of goods and services. Industry experts estimate that as much as $1 billion in new tax revenue will be raised from Manhattan alone. This is an ominous prospect. Worst of all, experts fear that this provision will be counterproductive as a revenue raiser, bringing minimal revenue benefit at great human cost.

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Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Congressional Record.
07/28/1993 | Full Details

If a murderer kills you, it’s homicide. If a drunk driver kills you, it’s manslaughter. If the FDA kills you, it’s just being cautious…Our own federal government’s bureaucratic and apparently unaccountable Food and Drug Administration [blocked drug approvals while Americans] died in agony from a disease other nations controlled for years.

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The Washington Legal Foundation (WLF) newspaper ads in publications, including the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times.
06/21/1993 | Full Details

[The voters] will remember who let loose this deadly virus into our economic bloodstream.

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Rep. Robert Michel (R-IL), The Los Angeles Times.
05/28/1993 | Full Details

Day after day, tomorrow after tomorrow, in every purchase they make, every trip they take, in every school, in every church, in every workplace, in every home, in ways that they may not even be aware of, the Clinton energy tax will be a silent, greedy destroyer of their family budget. And they will remember who set loose this dreadful virus into the economic bloodstream of our Nation

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Rep. Robert Michel (R-IL), Congressional Record.
05/27/1993 | Full Details

About the only positive environmental impact this tax package will produce is that in destroying 400,000 American jobs, there will be fewer commuters driving their cars to work each day! Between the Clean Air Act and this proposed tax, this country will lose almost 20 percent of its refinery capacity by the end of the decade. In addition to the refinery problem, the tax is punitive to clean fuels, providing little incentives for industries to switch to more environmentally sound fuels like natural gas.”

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Jack Fields (R-TX), Congressional Record
05/27/1993 | Full Details

The votes we take today will not be soon forgotten by the American voters. Both votes on the rule and on final passage will lead to more taxes, higher inflation, and slower economic growth.

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Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH), Congressional Record.
05/27/1993 | Full Details

…your economic program is a job killer. Your tax increases on the energy in this country will affect people from the automobile to the schoolhouse to the grocery shelves.

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Rep. John Kasich (R-OH), Congressional Record.
05/27/1993 | Full Details

After careful analysis, I decided that I could not support this package. It goes too far in raising taxes and not far enough in cutting spending….I fear that this package, if enacted as passed by the House, will come back to haunt all of us because of its emphasis on taxes over spending cuts. We must not abandon the more fiscally responsible, new Democrat approach on which we were elected.

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Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), Congressional record.
05/27/1993 | Full Details

The problem with our economy is that there is too little employment and too little growth. This plan will do nothing to improve that condition and will actually make it worse.

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Rep. Christopher Cox (R-CA), Congressional Record.
05/27/1993 | Full Details

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