July 31st, 2009, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today urged more than 400,000 ALG activists nationwide to “hold rallies, demonstrations, tea parties, and protests in opposition to Barack Obama’s insidious efforts to take over the health care system and take away private health options from the American people.”
Wilson said that “Homegrown, grassroots efforts staged in front of House members’ district offices and at town hall meetings across the nation against ObamaCare are all the more imperative as Blue Dog Democrats attempt to defend the compromise they reached this week with House leadership on the language for the health care bill.”
Wilson said local efforts in Congressional districts throughout the month of August will culminate in the August 22nd “Recess Rally,” which Americans for Limited Government is co-sponsoring.
“There are going to be boots on the ground in districts across the country, and they’re not going to be happy when the politicians return home for their August recess and try to defend this mealy-mouth ‘compromise’ reached by the Blue Dogs,” Wilson promised.
The deal reached between Blue Dog lead negotiator Congressman Mike Ross (AR-CD4) and House leaders would cut $50 billion out of a bill that Kaiser Health News reports would cost more than $1.5 trillion.
Said Wilson of the deal, “96.6 percent of a catastrophe is still a catastrophe. The government-run health care legislation still creates an unsustainable entitlement that will permanently shackle taxpayers to an insurmountable burden that can never possibly be paid back.”
The House legislation proposes to cover individuals individuals up to 400 percent of the poverty level, or making approximately $43,320 or less annually, will be eligible for some level of health coverage under the plan whether through the public “option,” Medicaid, or otherwise.
“Barack Obama has promised the impossible: expanding care to 45 million without raising costs or increasing the deficit,” said Wilson.
“An average premium goes for $4,700, bringing the total cost of the additional care to 45 million more people to roughly $211.5 billion extra annually. That money is not going to grow on trees—it’s going to come off the printing press and from overseas loans from China and Japan,” Wilson explained.
Wilson instead promoted what he called the “private option” as an alternative to the bill proposed in Congress. “We desperately need entitlement reform, not an entitlement expansion. The private option means giving all Americans the option not to participate at all in any government-sponsored plan,” said Wilson.
Wilson continued, “It means unrestrained consumer choice, unrestricted insurance companies, the removal of all insurance coverage mandates, no obligatory coverage either for employers or individuals, market-set pricing instead of government-appropriated and controlled pricing, increased competition by reducing and removing those barriers to entry for insurance companies, pharmaceuticals, and other health care institutions, and finally, entitlement reform.”
“Medical institutions are already in the red, and they will not emerge by permanently funding the health care system by a government that has expanded the national debt for every single year since 1958. That is a path to certain national insolvency,” Wilson concluded.
Interview Availability: Please contact Alex Rosenwald at (703)383-0880 or at arosenwald@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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