You're creating an enormously expensive regulation without true evidence of what we will get out of it. You're creating an enormous cost that will only have the effect of pushing jobs offshore.
[The ergonomics standard is] the most expensive, intrusive regulations ever promulgated, certainly by the Department of Labor and maybe by any department in history.
If implemented, they would require employers to establish burdensome and costly new systems intended to track, prevent and provide compensation for an extremely broad class of injuries whose cause is subject to considerable dispute.
These [ergonomics] regulations would cost employers, large and small, billions of dollars annually while providing uncertain benefits.
[The ergonomics standard is a] overbroad, overdrawn, bureaucratic mess.
[The Clinton health care initiative is] washed-over old-time bureaucratic liberalism, or centralized bureaucratic socialism.
And if you like socialized medicine, you will love this government bureaucracy under [then-Vice President and Democratic presidential nominee] Al Gore that will actually cost seniors who get $500 a year in prescription drugs right now -- it will end up costing seniors more money and take away control from those seniors.
LPA is pleased to submit testimony in strong opposition to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's (OSHA's) proposed ergonomics standard, and in particular, the work restriction protection provisions, which would effectively replace state workers' compensation laws for injured employees. As estimated by the Employment Policy Foundation, at $100 billion, the standard is likely the most costly in OSHA's history…
This regulation, whenever it is issued and takes effect, will be one of the most far-reaching workplace rules ever issued by any federal agency. Ultimately it will affect every business in the country.
I believe employers should be aware that employees who earn under $10 an hour cannot lead an independent life. But I do not believe that government should dictate wages. We have seen this fail in Socialist and Communist countries. It will do irreparable harm.
