(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“This is the wrong piece of legislation and it must be repealed.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“Obamacare has made our nation sicker, and if not repealed will put our nation in a state of critical condition.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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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).

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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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(Alexandria, Virginia) – 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors advocacy group, today disputed growing media reports that lower turnout for the GOP presidential primary in certain states indicates diminished enthusiasm to beat President Obama,

“I understand the media would like to grab hold of the lower than expected number of GOP primary voters in states like Florida to spin the tale that enthusiasm is waning to beat President Obama, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

“Yes, turnout was down a few percentage points compared to 2008, but there really is no comparison to four years ago.  In ‘08 the race in Florida was very tight, with Senator McCain and Governor Romney neck-in-neck in the polls leading to the primary, and Governor Huckabee and Mayor Giuliani were also on the ballot, driving dedicated supporters to the polls.  Four serious candidates campaigned hard and it helped drive voter turnout.

“This year Governor Romney had a double-digit lead for days prior to the vote, and two of the four GOP candidates did not even campaign in the state. With the contest all but decided, Florida voters were far less motivated to head to the polls.

“Further, the media neglects to note that turnout in other states such as New Hampshire and South Carolina was up, where the race was more competitive and more candidates were in the field, demonstrating that GOP enthusiasm is anything but withering in the battle to replace Barack Obama in the White House.

“As the leader of a seniors group with over 7.1 supporters, I know older Americans are fired-up in 2012, and the same ’senior tsunami’ that swept to sea more than 60 Democrats in 2010 is just offshore and I predict it will come back with gale force in November.

“Let’s hope going further the press does a thorough analysis of the dynamics at play in the GOP contest, and not feed the public the wishful thinking of the pr-Obama media,” concluded Martin.

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(Alexandria, Virginia) – 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors organization touting over 7.1 million supporters, responded to this evening’s State of the Union Address:

“It’s bad enough to elect a President who had to learn on the job, but tonight’s State of the Union Address demonstrates that going into the final year of his presidency, he still hasn’t learned a thing,  clinging to a failed ideology that puts government in the driver’s seat of nearly every facet of our lives.  Divisiveness, class warfare and a growing army of government bureaucrats will not fix our ailing nation, yet for three years this is all we have to show from President Obama.

“The facts are unavoidable, this Administration’s record is a journey of one wrong turn after another. The President added $5 trillion dollars to our national debt, and the results were the exact opposite of what he promised; an increase in unemployment, higher gas and energy prices, $500 billion in cuts to Medicare, the gutting of our military and a massive new entitlement program that he called a ’signature achievement,’ but which received only 44 words in his speech tonight because of its overwhelming unpopularity with the American people.

“And as Americans head to their beds tonight, the occupant of the White House has yet to offer one single solitary idea to address entitlement spending, and the imminent insolvency of Social Security and Medicare.  These critical programs are vital to America’s seniors today and retirees of tomorrow, and are crucially linked to whether our nation can right its financial ship of state and remain a world power.  The negligence toward entitlement reform is a true disgrace.

“America hoped for more, in the end we got what we expected, a campaign speech that obscured three years of failure, and stridently clings to an agenda that has America racing to the bottom.”

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(Alexandria, Virginia) – Appearing on this morning’s CNBC show “Squawk Box,” Democrat Congressional Campaign Committee Chairman Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and his colleague Rep. Karen Bass (D-CA) offered excuses for their colleagues on the Senate side for failing to pass a budget in 1000 days, saying it was the GOP’s fault in the House for not sending Senate Democrats a bill they could agree on because they loaded the House budget with “poison pills.”

This prompted a response from 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors advocacy group:

“The Senate has its own budget committee, what the House does or doesn’t do has absolutely no bearing on the complete and utter dereliction of duty exhibited by Harry Reid and the Democrat majority in the U.S. Senate for their failure to pass a budget in the last 1000 days.

“Democrats are so eager to campaign on the ‘do nothing’ Congress theme that its all they want to do, meanwhile the one chamber Democrats control has done nothing in 1000 days on the budget. I’ve got news for Harry and his Senate colleagues, the House Republicans aren’t your servants, put here to fold your laundry and pass bills subject to your personal approval. If your own committees can’t pass a budget, then send them home and let’s stop paying them, because they’re not doing their job.

“Van Hollen’s lame and ridiculous excuse doesn’t pass the smell test and demonstrates with crystal clarity that Democrats are, and have been, in full campaign mode for some time now, completely shirking their responsibilities, and attempting to pass the buck on their horrendous record of failure.”

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