SMALL ANTS, TALL TALES

THE REPUBLICANS ARE WIELDING DUBIOUS PERSONAL ANECDOTES IN THEIR WAR AGAINST FEDERAL REGULATIONS

They used to be small businessmen, griping in obscurity about government red tape. But now they're big-time Congressmen whose real-life horror stories are making a big impression on Capitol Hill. House majority whip Tom DeLay, a former exterminator, says the Environmental Protection Agency has allowed fire ants to trample the South. Georgia dentist Charles Norwood says federal regulators have made it hard for children to believe in the tooth fairy. And Cass Ballenger, a North Carolina plastic-packaging manufacturer, says labyrinthine EPA rules have cost his business more than $1 million. Now, in the name of regulatory reform, DeLay, Norwood and Ballenger...

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