We had government price controls for long distance telephone service. Telephone companies became more competitive and long distance prices declined substantially. Here in America, the same thing happened for railroad freight and truck freight, and is starting to happen for electric power. But the United States is not unique. Government price controls have never worked, at any time, in any country.
Free markets do work.
They produce better products at lower prices for more people than any other system ever tried. If government controls were the answer to economic progress, Russia would have won the Cold War. All of us have been helped by one of the best staffs around. Charlie Heimbold, when he served as Chairman, decided to take a page out of President Clinton's manual and insisted that PhRMA respond to every new initiative within the same news cycle. PhRMA staff members actually made a visit to an editor at home on a Sunday afternoon to get an unfair story rewritten.