(Alexandria, Virginia) – Today marks the two year anniversary of President Obama’s signature piece of legislation of his Administration, Obamacare, and America is in mourning, not celebrating, according to 60 Plus Association Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors organization with over 7.1 million national supporters.

“From the very start, we said that Obamacare was bad medicine for America and seniors especially, and that prediction is only becoming more true the more we see of this disastrous piece of legislation. It’s ominous beginnings started by slashing more than $500 billion from Medicare, and that was only the start.

“Aside from being the single biggest threat to the individual liberty of every American by handing critical decisions of life-saving care to bureaucrats, Obamacare as it exists will hurt Americans and be especially devastating to America’s seniors.  It is beyond dispute that Obamacare will speed the bankruptcy of our nation, by adding trillions of new spending and taxes to our already ailing economy.  It will cost jobs by saddling businesses with thousands of pages of government mandates and billions in new taxes. It will cause private health insurance premiums to continue to skyrocket, and force doctors out of the practice of medicine.

“This is the wrong piece of legislation and it must be repealed. Obamacare has not yet even been fully enacted and we have already seen that, like a tornado ripping across the landscape, it leaves wreckage wherever it lands. The President barely mentioned his prized health care law in his last State of the Union address, giving it a scant 44 words in an hour-long speech. He knows that America doesn’t want it, and those who did not receive one of the thousand plus waivers are already seeing how it will hurt their health care and hand their fate to the government.

“Obamacare has made our nation sicker, and if not repealed will put our nation in a state of critical condition. The House of Representatives made a brave start in its repeal by voting to axe the IPAB rationing board, but we must go further. We must repeal Obamacare, or future generations will remember this date with regret, when America truly went took a one way road into permanent decline.”

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By Jim Martin Chairman, 60 Plus Association

It is downright amazing that the most momentous, and contemptible, piece of legislation Washington has seen in the last 50 years passed without tempting one Republican in the entire Congress to cross the aisle and join in. History will forever recall that Obamacare, in all its budget-busting and government-expanding glory, is entirely a creation of the Democrats, from the secret meetings where all 2,700 pages were drafted, to its final passage. And the GOP stayed unified throughout; not a single cat was lost in the herd!

With Democrats cloaked in Obamacare like Rod Blagojevich in prison orange and the law gaining in unpopularity by the day, is it any wonder they are starting to buckle on this issue? And why shouldn’t they? In the 2010 midterm elections they lost more than a quarter of their caucus in the House, in large part due to public opposition to Obamacare. Much of that opposition came from seniors, who, while only 13% of the voting public, comprised 23% of the midterm electorate. Liberal Democrats like Barney Frank, Fortney “Pete” Stark and even Allyson Schwartz, a member of the House Democratic leadership, are part of a small but growing group of Democrat survivalists joining the GOP and voicing opposition to specific tentacles of the new law.

This is why I am so puzzled, even miffed, by the recent public opposition of conservative Don Corleones like Sen. Jim DeMint and Rep. Steve King to the Republican-led charge to repeal the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB), the 15-member panel of unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats who will be given carte blanche to ration care by their unilateral decisions. Yes, I know, Congress has the “final say,” if you can imagine two-thirds of Congress agreeing on anything. A bill to repeal IPAB recently passed Chairman Fred Upton’s Energy and Commerce Committee and currently has 20 Democrats as co-sponsors, including the three noted above. The GOP has maintained a unified front, so why go rogue now when so many are on board against IPAB?

On the surface, the argument by DeMint and King seems reasonable: killing portions of Obamacare undermines and confuses the real goal — killing the whole thing, stem to stern, in one fell swoop. Attacking parts of the law, they claim, may appear to signal complacency with mending it, and indicate we are okay with a watered-down version and risk being seen as the “party of some of Obamacare.”

But this simply is not true. As DeMint and King point out, the 2012 election will yield either a pro-Obamacare or anti-Obamacare result based on which party prevails, and total repeal of the law remains a pillar of the Republican 2012 platform without exception. No Republican working to push IPAB off a cliff will settle for less, so the choice is not mutually exclusive and the framing of the election is not affected. Voters still know that the GOP is the party for total repeal, and with continued unanimity long since settled, taking on IPAB strengthens, not weakens, the party’s image on the issue. Seniors understand the stakes, and favor attacking IPAB just as much as repealing Obamacare as a whole. Pronouncements like these from up above fall upon deaf ears.

What the public effort to repeal IPAB does accomplish is three-fold. First, it keeps the issue on the front-burner, reminding the public that we still don’t know what’s in this mammoth-sized law, or what is waiting for us around the corner. The more despicable components of the law we can expose, the more the Democrats have to play defense and answer to their constituents for a bill none of them bothered to read. Republicans employed this strategy in the ’90s, keeping the heat on Bill Clinton until he finally agreed to welfare reform by continually underscoring its wasteful and immoral trappings until he finally relented.

Second, IPAB assists our side in the public relations battle to highlight the pain and suffering inherent within Obamacare, in a way that engages and motivates the public far more than arguments against its “unconstitutional mandate.” The Heritage Foundation recently obtained a memo from the Obama administration outlining a coordinated public relations campaign to support the law, which is sure to feature weepy-eyed citizens falling to their knees, praising Obama for saving their lives. Our side needs to engage in this PR battle and bugle all of its ills, from higher premiums, to people losing coverage, to its trillions in cost, and on and on. IPAB and its rationing panels are central to this strategy.

Finally, the real fear shouldn’t be visions of a diluted Obamacare surviving minus IPAB, but IPAB setting up shop without Obamacare. It is quite conceivable that Republicans may prevail in 2012 and repeal the health care law, only to see Democrats revive the IPAB blueprint years from now in an attempt to re-assemble nationalized health care. Having a public debate on IPAB can help settle the matter for good, much like the “Harry and Louise” ads turned public sentiment against Hillarycare in the early ’90s. Those ads, and the debate they generated, have had such a lasting impact that Obama and congressional Democrats were forced to conceal their agenda to pass Obamacare against the wishes of the American public.

The approach that Sen. DeMint and Rep. King are advocating would not only yield the moral high ground to the Democrats, it would be a failure of leadership. Note that we have not seen Democrats try to revive “catastrophic health care” legislation in the 23 years since a group of angry seniors rocked the car of House Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski so hard he was still being treated for motion sickness years later. When politicians see an uprising, they tuck tail and keep it tucked. Exposing IPAB now while it is still law and ripe for exposure can help ensure we never see its ugly head again.

I can’t think of very many times I’ve disagreed with Sen. DeMint and Rep. King, both of whom I’ve personally campaigned with in their states. Whether on conservative principles, policy or the pronunciation of tomato and potato, we’ve always been in agreement. But on this matter, I believe they have it wrong. Obamacare isn’t Julius Caesar and Congress isn’t Brutus. The issue will be decided at the ballot box after a vigorous campaign that covers all of the law’s failings, IPAB included. Caesar’s fate would be ideal for Obamacare, but a death by a thousand cuts would work just as well.

The battle over Obamacare is really like a boxing match; a jab to the body, a hook to the jaw, and try not to let the Democrats take a bite from our ear. While our side remains unified, the Democrats are starting to show cracks in the facade. This is the debate our democracy requires. Come Election Day this November, the choice belongs to the American people.

Jim Martin is chairman and founder of the 60 Plus Association, which represents 7.l million seniors nationally.

Read the article here: http://dailycaller.com/2012/03/20/gop-will-need-multiple-votes-to-repeal-obamacare/#ixzz1pfUpBpaH

In this issue:

• 60 Plus Launches New Ad Campaign: Prevent seniors from being denied care
• Obama’s 2013 Budget Offers More Debt, More of the ‘Shame’
• Poll Shows Americans Still Favor Smaller Government
• Democrats Dust Off ‘Medi-Scare’ Tactics for 2012 Elections
• AARP Providing No Assistance in Fight to Save Medicare
• Obama Fiddles as Social Security Goes Bankrupt
• 60 Plus Fights to Stop Rogue Pharmacies from Poisoning Seniors
• Obama’s Fossil Fuel Agenda Causes Skyrocketing Energy Prices
• Act Now to Block Harmful Pharmacy Merger

60 Plus Launches New Ad Campaign: Prevent seniors from being denied care

A number of senators supported President Obama’s heathcare reform legislation (commonly referred to as “ObamaCare”), which — in addition to cutting $500 billion from Medicare — created a Medicare IRS that will deny seniors access to the care they need.

Acting like a Medicare IRS, the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB) is a 15-member bureaucratic council that will dictate what constitutes “necessary care” for Medicare recipients as a means to cut costs beyond the half-trillion dollars that was already eliminated through Obama’s government takeover of healthcare. The Board’s so-called recommendations can be fully enacted without Congressional action, allowing them to autonomously ration care for seniors.

The result is that the IPAB can cut doctor payments and ultimately decide what treatments senior receive. Earlier this week, 60 Plus launched an ad campaign targeting 5 senators and urging them to support real Medicare reform.

Watch one or more of our latest ads:

• Florida (Bill Nelson)
• Michigan (Debbie Stabenow)
• Missouri (Claire McCaskill)
• Montana (Jon Tester)
• Ohio (Sherrod Brown)

Obama Fiscal 2013 Budget Offers More of the ‘Shame’

The President who promised to “make tough choices” and cut the deficit in half before his first term expired presented a 2013 budget blueprint to Congress in February that does neither of these things. And like President Obama’s three previous budgets, the newest offering shatters the yearly deficits offered by all other presidents before him.

Obama makes Americans nostalgic for the days when a billion dollars was still a lot of money. While cutting another $362 billion from Medicare, his fiscal plan adds hundreds of billions more in new ’stimulus’ spending (including $476 billion for transportation projects like light rail), $1.6 trillion in tax hikes, and billions more in bailouts to unions and failing state governments.

Over the last four years, Obama has now added (for those with calculators housing extra horsepower) $5.15 trillion in debt to our nation, or more correctly, $5.15 trillion in debt to each and every American. Figured another way, four years of Obama has cost the average family of four $70,000, or $17,000 for every man, woman and child legally in the U.S.

The projections are even worse; over the next 10 years. Obama adds $6.7 trillion to our national debt, taking us to an I.O.U. of $25.5 trillion by 2025. And this is the ‘rosy’ scenario. In Obama’s first budget, he projected the 2013 deficit would be $581 billion, but in reality the true figure is now s$1.33 trillion, a misfire of 129%.

While somehow claiming that he is cutting a trillion dollars in spending, Obama still takes the nation’s annual spending budget from $3.8 trillion in 2013 to $5.8 trillion in 2022, an increase of 52%. If this can be considered making “tough choices” then the Golden Corral limitless buffet can be considered an evening snack.

Calling the budget “shameful,” 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin said, “This President has a one-track mind, and instead of a path to prosperity, that track is a government funded highway to failure and bankruptcy. This budget echoes the exact policies of taxing, spending and borrowing which have drowned our nation in debt and saddled every American with the worst economy since the 1930s Depression.”

Since the 2010 midterm elections, the GOP has proposed more than 30 different budget and spending measures to reduce the national debt. Meanwhile the President submitted one budget plan which was voted down by a Democrat controlled Senate 97-0. The chances this newest budget passes either congressional chamber are just as slim. Still, it reflects the policies of a White House addicted to deficit spending and bigger government.

Concluded Martin, “Ronald Reagan worked to make America once again a ’shining city on a hill,’ but this President is pushing us to be a city under a mountain, a mountain of debt. Americans deserve better than the failure and broken promises this President continues to shovel our way.”

Americans Favor Smaller Government, Lower Taxes

Despite three years of class-warfare rhetoric from President Obama and Democrats in Washington, the American people still favor smaller government and lower taxes, according to a February 2012 poll sponsored by Public Notice and conducted by respected national polling firm The Tarrance Group.

According to the poll, “When asked about the best way to grow the economy and create jobs, voters respond with a strong preference for cutting government spending and keeping taxes low (55%) as opposed to increasing government spending and asking the rich to pay more in taxes (36%).”

Among other findings:

• 73% believe the economy is impacted by the national debt.
• 55% believe the best way to fix the economy is to cut spending.
• 84% are very concerned the U.S. Senate has not passed a budget in over 1000 days — almost three years!

President Obama is counting on dividing the country by class and proposals to tax wealth, but by large margins, Americans still believe that when it comes to fixing the economy, to paraphrase a well-known Democrat campaign slogan: “It’s the spending, stupid.”

Democrats Dust off Medi-scare Tactics for 2012

File under “chutzpah.” The very same Democrats who cut $500 billion from Medicare and were ousted from office in droves by angry seniors in 2010 are now plotting to re-take the majority in Congress in 2012. Their plan is to once again demonize Republicans on the issue of… are you ready? Medicare. No, that is not a typo.

Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Steve Israel (NY) said Democrats will make the 2012 campaign about “Medicare, Medicare, Medicare” and will attack Republican House members for their support of Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) reform plan to keep Medicare from going bankrupt.

But false strategies are still alive and well in the Democrat playbook, with even liberal-leaning news sites admitting that the Democrat Medi-scare tactic is flat out false.

Politifact, a national political watchdog, even went so far as to tag Democrat attacks against Republicans as anti-Medicare as its “2011 lie of the year.” It seems Nancy Pelosi’s dream to retake the Speaker’s gavel is just a bit premature.

Though Pelosi will continue to attempt to scare seniors with phony campaign tactics, it’s clear to just about everyone but her and the Democrat House caucus that their party’s credibility on Medicare is gone for good.

AARP Providing No Assistance in Fight to Save Medicare

Congressional physicians are reaching out to the AARP for assistance in solving the looming insolvency of Medicare, and receiving the cold shoulder in return. This prompted a response from 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors organization, with over 7.1 million supporters.

“AARP has once again shown that when the chips are down and America’s seniors are looking for strong advocacy on their behalf, they just fold their cards. AARP has a real opportunity — as well as responsibility — to help create a solution to save Medicare for America’s seniors and future retirees, but they reject out of hand all reasonable efforts to preserve and strengthen the program, just as they did with the bi-partisan Wyden-Ryan plan.”

“What I find especially troubling is that when President Obama and (then) Speaker Nancy Pelosi needed AARP’s nod to cut $500 billion from Medicare, they were there before the phone hung up. Now you have 18 Members of Congress, medical professionals no less, from the House and Senate asking AARP to help keep Medicare from going bankrupt, and the silence is deafening. This is all you need to know to realize that AARP is a political organization feeding at the government trough, and not a true voice for America’s seniors.”

The open letter sent by the Doctor Caucus stated, in part, “Unfortunately, as long as politicians obscure the Medicare program’s prognosis for political benefit and stakeholders like AARP fail to publicly challenge these political calculations by educating their membership on the structural financing challenges facing the program, a national conversation about how best to save the Medicare program will not move forward.”

AARP’s inaction on Medicare came during the same timeframe when 60 Plus exposed their hypocrisy on the issue of their coverage of pre-existing conditions as part of the many insurance products they sell to seniors. AARP lobbied heavily for ObamaCare and its call to cover all regardless of pre-existing conditions, but in the actual legislation, AARP gets a pass and can sell insurance that does not have to cover many prior conditions that seniors may have, a detail that will add tens of millions of dollars of profit to their bottom line.

These events offer yet more evidence that the AARP is a for-profit ally of the Democrat White House first, and advocate for America’s elderly last.

Obama Fiddles as Social Security Goes Bankrupt

For decades Washington politicians have used the Social Security Trust Fund as a personal piggy bank, stealing the money and leaving I.O.U.s in return. Those days are not only over with Social Security running annual deficits, but the program itself will cease to exist in its current form, going “bust” in 2022.

President Obama has not only failed to address Social Security at all during his three years in the White House, he has greatly accelerated the very deficit spending that is causing Social Security to die on the vine. So extreme is Obama’s neglect of Social Security, he failed to mention the program even once in his seven page letter to Congress that accompanied his 2013 budget proposal.

Noted 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “While the President is eagerly throwing away trillions of dollars on bailouts and taxpayer funded loans to the failed companies of his political contributors, Social Security not only gets ignored by this Administration, but further devastated by his total mismanagement of our nation’s financial assets.”

Social Security is yet another mess left by President Obama that will require cleaning up by the next occupant of the White House. America’s seniors deserve better, and come November, they will be voting that way.

The 60 Plus Association Takes on Phony Pharmacies Selling Bad Medicine

With more than 80,000 online pharmacies populating the internet, the opportunity for seniors and others to be defrauded on the net is increasing each day, prompting 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin to call on Congress to take action by passing legislation that will protect consumers and crack down on web sites masquerading as legitimate pharmacies on the internet. “Millions of Americans, but seniors especially, are in serious danger of ingesting harmful and counterfeit pharmaceuticals sold by fraudulent overseas websites, who are selling pills that are ineffective at best, and outright poisonous at worst. These websites are increasing in number every day, and increasing in sophistication to mask their true identity and the poison they’re peddling.

“I call on Congress to take action now, to help increase public awareness of the danger of these sites, and help put a stop to the distribution of these so-called medicines containing only-God-knows-what to unsuspecting Americans,” said Martin. “The longer we wait, the more we let millions of senior citizens and those who care for them play Russian Roulette with their health care.”

Martin proposes that Congress move forward with granting law enforcement and U.S. trade officials enhanced power to shut down foreign websites marketing pharmaceuticals without approval. “Anti-piracy legislation may be on the back burner for now, but while Congress delays, tens of millions of Americans of all ages remain at risk. Legislation to address foreign rogue pharmacies has broad bi-partisan support, and must move forward without delay.”

Record Energy Prices Bankrupting Seniors and Working Americans

President Obama is saying that the record energy prices and the doubling of the price at the pump during his time in office are not his fault. Do you agree?

For starters there is the President’s regulatory record through the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) — or as we should more accurately call it — the Economic Punishment Agency, which is pushing much stricter and costlier standards on energy producers, despite the fact that many of these regulations will cause entire power plants to close down and provide no actual health benefit to the public.

More than 32 coal plants will be forced to close due to new EPA regulations, killing jobs, shutting down small towns, and forcing the rest of us to pay more for energy. Coupled with the President’s failure to act on the Keystone XL pipeline, it is easy to see why energy prices — and the prices of all items tied to energy — have continued in an upward trajectory since the moment Obama took office.

Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “This President is giving taxpayer-funded loans to Brazilian energy companies to produce oil to sell to us one day,” said Martin. “Why is the American taxpayer financing energy abroad, when we need more U.S. energy, for our economy and for our families?”

“Obama’s perverse energy policies are devastating to seniors on fixed incomes, who because of his anti-coal and anti-oil agenda will no longer be able to heat their homes to a comfortable level, or put gas in the tank to visit their doctor or loved ones. The President’s policies are killing our economy and hurting people — notably seniors.”

Act Now to Block Harmful Pharmacy Merger

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering whether to allow mega-pharmacy benefit corporations Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions to merge. If approved, this merger will increase prescription drug prices and force many community pharmacies out of business, making it harder for patients to access the medications and services they need. Because an approved merger will disproportionately impact American seniors, we encourage all 60 Plus supporters to speak out against it by signing an open letter opposing this harmful merger.

According to reports, the FTC is expected to render its final decision very soon — so swift action is needed. Visit the Take Action section of the Preserve Community Pharmacy Access NOW! (PCPAN) Coalition website to sign a petition to the FTC.

ALEXANDRIA, VIRGINIA – The 60 Plus Association, nationally recognized as the conservative alternative to the liberal AARP, today launched a new ad campaign that highlights healthcare reform’s impact on America’s seniors, including the creation of the Independent Payment Advisory Board (IPAB).  The $3.5 million campaign includes television and online advertising that begins on March 12 in Florida, Michigan, Ohio, Montana and Missouri, targeting five Senate Democrats.

“Congress can’t allow bureaucratic number crunchers to decide what is ‘necessary’ for your health,” said music legend Pat Boone, National Spokesman for the 60 Plus Association.  “No politician – especially an unelected, unaccountable bureaucrat – should have the power to deny seniors the care we deserve.”

Acting like a Medicare IRS, IPAB is a 15-member bureaucratic council that will dictate what constitutes “necessary care” for Medicare recipients as a means to cut costs beyond the half-trillion dollars that was already eliminated through Obama’s government takeover of healthcare.  The Board’s so-called recommendations can be fully enacted without Congressional action, allowing them to autonomously ration care for seniors.

“The Independent Payment Advisory Board must be abolished,” said Jim Martin, Chairman and Founder of 60 Plus.  “After cutting $500 billion from Medicare, the Obama’s healthcare bill will create a Medicare IRS that will deny seniors access to the care we need.  When bureaucracy like this is introduced, Americans lose.  And in healthcare, losing is unacceptable.”

Watch the ads:

• Sherrod Brown (D-OH)
• Claire McCaskill (D-MO)
• Bill Nelson (D-FL)
• Debbie Stabenow (D-MI)
• Jon Tester (D-MT)

The transcript below targets Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL). The other four targets are: Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI); Sherrod Brown (D-OH); Jon Tester (D-MT) and Claire McCaskill (D-MO).

- TRANSCRIPT -

PAT BOONE:
Hi friend, I’m Pat Boone.  Last year, a lot of promises were made regarding health care reform, but America’s seniors knew forcing a bill through Congress when Americans overwhelmingly opposed it would be disastrous.  And we were right.

NARRATOR:
President Obama’s health care law cuts $500 billion from Medicare to pay for a new government program.  And it creates a board of 15 unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats.  It’s like a Medicare IRS with the power to cut Medicare even more.

PAT BOONE:
This IPAB board can ration care and deny certain Medicare treatments so Washington can fund more wasteful spending.  Your choices could be limited and you may not be able to keep your own doctor.

Medicare will be bankrupt in nine years, but Washington politicians, like Bill Nelson, are ignoring the problem, putting their own re-elections first.

Call Senator Nelson.  Urge him to support real Medicare reform and protect our seniors.  Tell him unaccountable bureaucrats should never have the power to deny you the care you deserve.

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60 Plus Chairman, Jim Martin, will be a speaker at the rally. Please consider joining us in Upper Senate Park. To RSVP, please sign up here.  To RSVP via Facebook, click here.