American Freedom and Enterprise Foundation Online Town Hall Draws Hundreds Opposed to Government Takeover

For Immediate Release: March 24, 2010

(St. Louis) – Hundreds of Missourians joined Former Sen. Jim Talent and Heritage Foundation’s, Dr. Robert Moffit to register their questions and concerns with the health bill signed into law yesterday by the President.

American Freedom and Enterprise Foundation partnered with the Heritage Foundation to host an online town hall on health care to answer questions about both the legislative process and the short and long term impacts of the bill.

“The government is already borrowing at a rate that is unsustainable, to fund the obligations it has already undertaken let alone nearly $1 trillion in new spending included in this legislation. Anyone who believes that this bill will actually reduce the debt is not facing reality,” Talent said. “The true price tag of this legislation will be far greater than the current estimate and passing a big new program is not the ‘substantial fiscal adjustment’ we should be considering during this economic crisis.”

“The President has signed, and now we must grapple with a highly unpopular health bill. It includes new taxes and government spending, bunches of federal boards and bureaucracies, mandates and penalties and an entitlement expansion,” Moffit said. “We overwhelmingly heard today that the American people don’t support this bill and will look for opportunities to overturn the government intrusion into their health care.”

“More money and increased government regulation will not address the challenges facing our current health care system,” said Dr. Charles Willey, St. Louis physician. “As a doctor, I diagnose patients and understand our national health care system. This bill does not begin to address the distortions in health care markets and perverse economic incentives that drive costs up. Those solutions can only be found in the free market.”

Talent, Moffit and Willey as well as the hundreds of participants in the forum agree that Congress should repeal this unpopular legislation and start working on real reform that will actually achieve the goal of bending the cost curve down and making health insurance available to the millions of Americans who currently do not have access.

The American Freedom and Enterprise Foundation is a unique clearing house for ideas and discussion based on free market principles as solutions to public policy. U.S. Senator Jim Talent and Ambassador Ann Wagner serve as Honorary Co-Chairs of the American Freedom and Enterprise Foundation.

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