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

Recycling may be the most wasteful activity in modern America: a waste of time and money, a waste of human and natural resources.

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John Tierney. The New York Times Magazine.
06/30/1996 | Full Details

Recycling has become the most primitive form of materialism: the worship of materials.

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John Tierney. The New York Times Magazine.
06/30/1996 | Full Details

A 5 cent bottle deposit program typically spends $500 for every ton of cans and bottles collected, which makes curbside recycling look like a bargain. States without mandatory deposits...have proven that the most efficient way to reduce litter is to hire cleanup crews.

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John Tierney. The New York Times Magazine.
06/30/1996 | Full Details

The other thing that I want to mention by way of example, which is-which will, I am sure, be discussed by others in the industry, is the expansion of the Toxic Release Inventory to cover the oil and gas exploration in the production industry. The IOGCC has been opposed to this and has a committee working specifically to change the minds of the Environmental Protection Agency to do this unnecessary expansion. Not only would it unnecessarily expand the toxic release inventory to an industry that is not appropriate but it would dilute the whole good part of what the toxic release inventory is doing for the States.

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Christine Hansen, representing the Board, the State of Alabama, and other member States of the Interstate Oil and Gas Compact Commission, Testimony, U.S. House Committee on Government Oversight and Reform.
05/20/1996 | Full Details

Emotional appeals about working families trying to get by on $4.25 an hour are hard to resist. Fortunately, such families don't really exist.

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Tom Delay (R-TX), Congressional Record.
04/23/1996 | Full Details

This is an unemployment act that hurts minority youth, and that is a shame.

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John Shadagg (R-AZ).
01/01/1996 | Full Details

I understand it is called a minimum wage bill, but in fact it is a layoff bill….Kids will lose their jobs, minorities will lose their jobs, senior citizens will lose their jobs. In small towns, in center cities, marginal businesses will be devastated.

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Representative Mark Souder (R-IN).
01/01/1996 | Full Details

The quickest way to kill jobs is to have this ordinance pass. It is dumb and dangerous.

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Norm Coleman, Mayor of St. Paul, Minnesota. St. Paul Pioneer Press.
10/06/1995 | Full Details
Law(s): Living Wage | Themes: Job Killer

More money could be available for worker safety and health if we cut back on bureaucratic administration, because an OSHA/MSHA merger would end duplicative costs, duplicative employees and duplicative actions.

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Patrick Murphy, administrative assistant to Representative Cass Ballenger(R-NC). The Salt Lake Tribune.
07/27/1995 | Full Details

The basic idea is OSHA [and by extension MSHA] has lost its purpose. Its purpose started off being the health and safety of workers, and now it's been more like a cop on the beat who gets rewarded for the number of tickets he can hand out. And it has become an anti-business operation of the federal government.

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Representative Cass Ballenger (R-NC), Business Insurance.
07/14/1995 | Full Details

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