Romney Pledges 'Obamacare' Waivers During St. Louis Speech

(St. Louis, MO) -- Days after securing Missouri's presidential delegates, Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney visited the Show-Me State Thursday, his first visit since securing the party's nomination.

Speaking at Production Products, a minority-owned defense manufacturing firm in north St. Louis, Romney said under President Obama's leadership, the economy has not improved fast enough.

"Enough time has passed for us to pass judgment on the president's economic policies: They have failed," he said, chiding Obama's policies as "moral failures" to the country.

To cheers from the crowd in a state that has, in the legislature, made significant efforts to block the health care law, Romney pledged to give waivers from the law to all 50 states if it is not overturned by the Supreme Court later this month.

Romney was joined in St. Louis by early supporters of his campaign, including Missouri state auditor Tom Schweich and former U.S. Senator Jim Talent.

Thursday's stop was Romney's third public campaign event in the state. His Democratic opponent, President Obama, has not held a public campaign event in the state this year, as Missouri is expected to go for the Republican in November.

Both candidates, however, have visited the candidates previously to raise campaign cash. In total, presidential candidates this year have raised $3.63 million in the state -- $1.32 million for Romney, and $1.3 million for Obama.

Mike Welch, a resident of Camden County, made the two hour drive to north St. Louis to see Romney. He and his wife said they were early supporters of Romney.

"We were Romney supporters before it was cool."

He and his wife caucused for the Republican presidential hopeful, but on other state races, said they were not as informed. Welch said he had not been following the U.S. Senate primary race, though his wife mentioned she had heard some of John Brunner's ads, and neither of the two knew of Republican gubernatorial hopeful Dave Spence.

At Romney's event, the Spence and Brunner campaigns, as well as the Brad Lager campaign for Lt. Governor, had a presence handing campaign literature to Romney supporters.

At Thursday's event, Romney added that the number of government programs proposed and implemented by the Obama administration shows the President doesn't have faith in free enterprise.

"That same system has helped lift more people out of poverty across the globe than any government program or competing economic system. The success of America's free enterprise system has been a bright beacon of freedom for the world. It has signaled to oppressed people to rise up against their oppressors, and given hope to the once hopeless."

Romney says Americans are suffering from a crisis of faith due to the state of the nation's economy.

"Our example -- and commitment -- to freedom has changed the world. But along with the genius of our Declaration of Independence, our Constitution, and our Bill of Rights, is the equal genius of our economic system. Our Founding Fathers endeavored to create a moral and just society like no other in history, and out of that grew a moral and just economic system the likes of which the world had never seen. Our freedom, what it means to be an American, has been defined and sustained by the liberating power of the free enterprise system."

We'll have more on Romney's visit to St. Louis on KOLR10 News at Five and Six.