• 60 Plus Takes to the Air with TV Campaign to Save and Preserve Medicare
• New 60 Plus Web Ad – Forward to Your Friends and Neighbors!
• Ryan Plan to Fix Medicare: Point by Point
• ObamaCare One Year Later
• Democrats Expand Energy Production, Just Not Here
• AARP: Caught Once Again Betraying Seniors
• Pulling the Plug on the Death Tax
• Piling Up More Debt
• Pat Boone Turns 77!
• 60 Plus in the News

60 Plus Takes to the Air with TV Campaign to Save and Preserve Medicare

If you have been watching the news and keeping current with the 60 Plus web site and email alerts, you see very clearly that the major political battle of our day is being fought right now in Washington. This contest will affect millions of seniors today and every other American for decades to come. Many believe that the very survival of our nation as we know it hangs in the balance.

Medi-Scare Medi-Scare Medi-scare

This battle of course is the one being fought over the budget, and entitlement reform. On one side you have President Obama and the liberal Senate Democrats, who want to stay the course with policies that include adding to our record debt, hiking taxes, and offering no significant plan on keeping Social Security and Medicare solvent other than cutting benefits and raising fees on seniors.

On the other side you have House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI), who along with his GOP colleagues have offered the only plan that will save and preserve Medicare; preserving Medicare exactly in its current form for today’s seniors and those within 10 years of retirement, and saving it for future generations by giving consumers more control over their health care choices. Of all the ideas currently being hinted at in Washington, the Ryan Plan is the only blueprint to slash government spending while keeping Social Security and Medicare solvent.

60 Plus and our more than 7 million supporters believes this debate is extremely important and that America’s seniors and families deserve to know the facts. In late June 60 Plus took to the air with a TV commercial featuring Congressman Ryan that aired nationally on cable, as well as on select broadcast stations in Ohio and Florida.

Watch the 60 Plus ad here.

The ad is simple, straightforward, and honest, with Congressman Ryan on camera stating:

“Washington has not been honest with you about Medicare… If we do nothing, Medicare spending will nearly double over the next decade, exhausting its remaining funds.”

Read a transcript of the ad here.

The 60 Plus ad received praise and media coverage for making a complex subject extremely simple. If America does nothing, entitlements go broke in about 10 years, and benefits end for everyone in short order.

Most importantly, the 60 Plus ads helped diffuse a deceiving TV campaign.

from the AARP, who many will recall were instrumental in helping ObamaCare limp across the finish line while cutting over $500 billion in Medicare. The AARP is putting its significant lobbying muscle to use opposing the Ryan Plan to appease their friends in the White House. Unfortunately for the AARP, their ads trumpeting support of Social Security were airing just as their own leadership was caught telling the Administration that they were OK with a proposal cutting seniors’ Social Security benefits.

In tandem with 60 Plus, Congressman Ryan shot back at the AARP, calling them a “left leaning pressure group” who were not looking out for seniors at all, but playing politics by carrying water for the Democrat party. Especially misleading were AARP claims that the Ryan plan would lead to “harmful cuts” in senior program, when his plan does not touch entitlements for anyone within 10 years of retirement.

60 Plus Chairman called the AARP campaign against the Ryan Plan “baloney, absolute hooey, and the AARP knows it! They’re a bunch of crybabies at this money-making insurance conglomerate.”

60 Plus will continue to stand by the Ryan Plan so long as it remains the only serious proposal to address long-term solvency of Medicare and Social Security. As of today the Democrats have proposed nothing to fix these important benefit programs that seniors have paid in to for decades, leaving them, and all other Americans, vulnerable.

New 60 Plus Web Ad – Forward to Your Friends and Neighbors!

A promise is a promise, so says a new 60 Plus web ad that will help to remind seniors that are not following every detail of the Medicare debate in Washington. Click the link below and forward to your friends to remind them that THEIR Medicare is at stake right now, and now is the time to end the empty promises of Washington politicians and demand that they preserve Medicare for today, and keep the program strong for future generations.

Ryan Plan to Fix Medicare: Point by Point

With the Medicare reform front and center in Washington’s battle over spending and our national debt crisis, it’s important to remember that Democrats have proposed absolutely NO PLAN to keep Medicare solvent. Recall in the first two years of the Obama era they had control of both chambers of Congress and did nothing except cut $500 billion from Medicare to help pay for ObamaCare.

Without some action, Medicare will be bankrupt and depleted in less than 10 years, leaving seniors and future generations with nothing, and effectively ending the program as we know it. Says 60 Plus spokesperson Pat Boone, “The status quo means Medicare will go bankrupt and seniors will lose their coverage completely. Washington has been given a choice when it comes to Medicare; Adapt the program or let it die.”

Something has got to change, doing nothing means devastation to millions. But Democrats have no interest in fixing Medicare, their only interest is political, scoring points by scaring seniors with falsehoods as true leaders like Paul Ryan propose actual solutions to save the program. This has been a favored — and unfortunately successful — tactic of the Democrat party for years, and even the Washington Post has pointed out on several occasions how deceitful this “Medi-scare” tactic is.

The Truth About the Ryan Plan

• Ryan’s plan SAVES Medicare, those Democrats who embrace the status quo are the ones steering Medicare off a cliff to insolvency.
• Those who call the Ryan plan “radical” or “draconian” are ignoring the fact that his plan is modeled after the same health care plan enjoyed by members of Congress and thousands of federal workers.
• Obama and the Democrats have cut anywhere from $500 to $800 billion from Medicare, depending on who is doing accounting, all to fund a massive new health care entitlement, which serves only to speed the insolvency of Medicare and result in serious rationing, which has already begun.
• No senior over 55 will see one single change to their Medicare under the Ryan plan,their Medicare is untouched and completely as they expect it.
• People 55 and younger willhave their health care costs paid for after choosing service providers that offer them flexibility and choices to suit their situation.
• This results in competitive pricing, which lowers the cost of care to everyone’s benefit, including our nation’s bottom line.
• Competition and flexibility has ALWAYS shown to be more cost-effective than government-run options. Costs will be kept down, protecting taxpayers.
• Further, the poor and disabled, or those who need care most, will be given preferential treatment over those with less serious health concerns, and more means to pay.
• The needy will receive an additional $8,500 in care above those of others, a fact conveniently left out of CBO’s attack on the Ryan plan.
• Those attacking the Ryan plan are heavily invested in the status quo where government makes all decisions, and costs are contained by unilateral decisions by bureaucrats to deny care for cost savings.
• The Ryan plan keeps Medicare investment per participant at current levels, but saves money by bringing in competition for care and asking the very wealthy to pay a bit more over time.
• By ditching the government philosophy of ‘one size fits all’ we are adding flexilibty, choice, competition and fairness to Medicare, keeping both the program solvent and keeping our nation from going bankrupt.

Visit the Republican Roadmap to learn more, and separate fact from fiction.

ObamaCare One Year Later

60 Plus continues to advocate the repeal of ObamaCare at every opportunity, and as we hit the one year anniversary of this disastrous legislation we mark the occasion with more than the wearing of black arm bands. Eventually this case will be decided by the Supreme Court, though so far, the Court has refused to review the constitutionality of the program because it has not yet taken full effect.

What we learn about the program as its implementation begins is that it is much worse than imagined. Premiums are going up, workers are being dumped from private health insurance plans, and doctors are retiring or cutting back their practices at an alarming rate. Meanwhile the Health and Human Services Secretary admits she double-counted the alleged Medicare savings that ObamaCare would provide.

A popular anti-cancer drug, Avastin, has already been declassified from Medicare coverage, which means we are getting a glimpse into the future of Medicare, which is vast rationing to deliver on the cost savings the Administration promised.

As 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin points out, ObamaCare is gambling with our very lives, putting our health and well-being in the hands of thousands of bureaucrats, and thousands of pages of legislative mumbo jumbo. “While some may be wishing ObamaCare a happy first anniversary, those who are paying attention are wishing it good riddance.”

Democrats Expand Energy Production, Just Not Here

The past few months have been telling, as Democrats have made no bones about their desire to see energy costs and prices at the pump rise as high as possible.

Telling a crowd in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that he wants the United States “to be one of your best customers,” President Obama announced taxpayer subsidized grants to the Brazilian government to expand offshore oil and gas drilling, something he vehemently (and rather brazenly) opposes off of U.S. shores in almost all cases. Said 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “This is pure hypocrisy and an absolute outrage. All we get from the Obama Administration are lectures about the negative effects of oil on our environment, but oil seems to somehow be better if it comes from Brazil as opposed to America, where our economy could create jobs and enrich our people.”

Also in May, Democrats on Capitol Hill took up arms to once again engage in class warfare against the invisible straw man of “big oil” – asking for higher taxes on oil producers that would kill jobs and chase them to areas outside the control of the U.S. government.

While recognizing that energy production is key to economic growth and most helpful to struggling families trying to make ends meet, Republicans in Congress pushed for legislation, H.R. 1229 and H.R. 1230, to create more energy supply, produce jobs and lower costs. These bills are supported by such groups as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Americans for Tax Reform, the National Taxpayers Union and of course the 60 Plus Association.

We will continue to keep you posted and publish updates should any of these pro-energy bills pass or move forward in Congress.

AARP: Caught Once Again Betraying Seniors

We at 60 Plus are not shy about calling the AARP what they truly are, which is the Association Against Retired Persons, and the more you watch their agenda, the more it seems they are going out of their way to earn this moniker.

Many people seem to forget that the AARP is an insurance company, that sells over $1 billion in products to seniors every year, so they have a vested interest in ObamaCare’s continued denial of quality coverage to seniors. Like a tire salesman with a knife hidden behind his back, the AARP is there to help you when you find out your goods have been slashed.

The fact they receive millions in taxpayer subsidies while engaging in commerce and questionable political activities led to hearings on Capitol Hill on whether the taxpayers footing the bill for their lobbying and anti-senior TV ads is appropriate. We answer with an obvious and resounding “NO.” Some 16 years ago, 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin testified before Congress about the AARP’s agenda and their use, or misuse, of tax dollars.

Now we learn that after spending millions of dollars lobbying (with taxpayer money) to help pass ObamaCare, the AARP is receiving a waiver, to avoid paying the taxes they were so eager to have every other employer pay.

To top it off, ObamaCare was passed with the promise that it would not discriminate against seniors or pre-existing conditions. But the Medigap insurance that the AARP sells… drumroll please… discriminates against seniors they don’t want to cover!

Pulling the Plug on the Death Tax

As it stands today, the federal estate and gift tax, aka “death tax,” is topped out at a rate of 35%, with the first $5 million exempt, but on January 1, 2013 it is set to return to previously established rates of 55% and an exemption on the first $1 million.

Most analysts and budget experts understand the estate tax brings in very little revenue to the Treasury, but that doesn’t mean it has little effect. The tax is the primary cause of family owned businesses and farms being broken-up, sold or closed outright due to the heirs inability to pay the tab to Uncle Sam.

The GOP House Study Committee, under the leadership of its Chairman Jim Jordan (OH) and RSCL Repeal Task Force Chairman Connie Mack (FL), are promoting legislation from Rep. Kevin Brady (TX) entitled the Death Tax Repeal Permanacy Act of 2011, H.R. 1259.

While this legislation won’t kill the death tax for good, it is an important first step to ensure that we do not return to the disastrous rates of the past, where successful family businesses and enterprises were devastated by a death or sudden turn of events. Tell your elected officials that you support killing the death tax for good, and until then H.R. 1259, the Death Tax Repeal Permanency Act, to stop any future increase in this macabre and un-American tax.

Piling Up More Debt

As you surely know by now, the ‘Great Debt Ceiling Debate’ of 2011 has been resolved, with the unfortunate result of liberal pro-government politicians winning the day, with authorization to spend our nation many trillions more into debt, $12.5 trillion by some estimates, over the next 10 years.

The President and his liberal Democrats fought tooth and nail against even modest cuts to spending. The message to the GOP House majority from Obama was that a veto was imminent, and he was willing to send the nation into default if a Balanced Budget Amendment reached his desk, despite polls showing over 60% of Americans favor it.

60 Plus has long supported the fiscal discipline of cutting projected deficits to protect both our nation’s future and the programs seniors have paid into for decades of their working lives. But with 2/3rds of the legislative and executive branches controlled by debt-loving Democrats, reasonable plans that left the House were D.O.A. in the U.S. Senate, without even an up or down vote in the chamber.

As a compromise, 60 Plus joined with the House Speaker and endorsed his plan for addressing the debt-limit and spending, but that too was rejected by the Democrats and their backers in the mainstream media, who were so busy reporting about the alleged “severe cuts” they didn’t bother to inform the American people that the national debt will still rise by trillions over the next 10 years.

Just as with the obnoxious healthcare law, and his massive stimulus program, Obama got his way, and the result was an immediate downgrading of the nation’s credit rating by Standard and Poor’s, making Obama the first President in our nation’s history to oversee the lowering of our country’s credit. With our nation’s reputation injured and our economy circling the drain, can 2012 come fast enough?

Pat Boone Turns 77!

Entertainment legend and 60 Plus national spokesperson Pat Boone turned 77 in June, and continues to show the world that you can make it well in to your 70s, and not lose a step. Boone has been extremely active in key political battles affecting America’s seniors, including the push to repeal ObamaCare and rescue Social Security and Medicare from bankruptcy. Said Boone:

“The Good Lord has taken care of me with an abundance that could fill a dozen lifetimes, not just with health and longevity, but with the best wife and companion a man could hope to find, family and friends that can rival any gathering in heaven, and a worldwide audience that gives me the privilege of doing what I love the most, entertaining people and putting smiles on their faces. I am so very thankful to Him for every year, every day, every second He gives me to continue living my dream.

I am further thankful to now be serving the cause of defending and fighting on behalf of America’s seniors as National Spokesperson to the 60 Plus Association, an organization led by its courageous Chairman Jim Martin, that daily stands-up to the big-government crowd who would trample America’s seniors under their heavy boot.“

For more on Pat Boone’s many activities on behalf of seniors, check back often to the 60 Plus web site, see his columns on worldnetdaily.com, or read this recent release on the need for leadership and courage in Washington to fix Medicare. Happy Birthday Pat!

60 Plus in the News

60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin has been a very busy man the past few months, traveling across the country and appearing in dozens of media outlets and venues fighting to end ObamaCare, sounding the alarm against Democrat-proposed tax increases and cuts to seniors’ benefits, and championing entitlement reform so that Medicare and Social Security don’t head off a cliff.

Giving a speech to hundreds at the 2nd Annual Faith and Freedom Conference in June, Martin said, “The Democrat plan to do nothing while Medicare heads to bankruptcy over the next decade is a political crime of the highest order, and something that every senior, and every American citizen ought to be fully aware of.”

Jim appeared on ABC News to promote Paul Ryan’s plan to save Medicare, reminding viewers that it was President Obama who set out to “end Medicare as we know it” by cutting more than $500 billion from the program and allowing the declassification of the anti-cancer drug Avastin from Medicare coverage.

In June, Jim spoke to the King Street Patriots in Houston and discussed the differences between ObamaCare and Congressman Paul Ryan’s plan to save Medicare, and made several appearances on Fox Business Channel discussing not only current budget and Medicare issues, but the disparity in media coverage between Republicans — who get very critical coverage when their personal behavior falls short — and Democrats like Anthony Weiner, who had the benefit of the media circling the wagons in his defense, before his web of lies unraveled. Watch Jim Martin on Fox Business News, the Art of Scandal Survival.

Stay tuned to 60 Plus alerts and updates for more media updates from the around the nation in defense of our health care, our pocket book, and our freedoms.

(Alexandria, VA) – Yesterday Democrats and Republicans reached a potential agreement on various tax issues. What President Obama failed to emphasize in his speech is that he is delaying the big discussion on the death tax another two years.

“The death tax will come back on January 1, 2011 with a tax exemption of $5 million for individuals and $10 million for couples. The tax rate will be at 35% and both of these will last for two years.

“While this is better than the death tax rate of 55% that would have come back on January 1^st, this is not the way to spur economic growth” said Jim Martin, Chairman of the 60 Plus Association. “What we need is permanent repeal of the death tax so that families and small business owners will have confidence that their assets will not be taxed for a second or third time when they die. This is the most burdensome and unfair of all taxes.”

“The compromise is temporary and will only delay the same discussion for another two years. What is needed is a permanent repeal, once and for all, of the death tax. Economic growth starts with the middle-class and we must do all we can to assure them that once they die, their heirs won’t have to deal with the emotional toll of seeing the business that their parents started, being taken away, penny by penny, by Uncle Sam.”

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Posted 07/25/2010

A standing-room-only crowd jammed the Liaison Hotel on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on July 15 to honor James L. Martin for his 50 years of political activism.  Martin has long been the out-spoken president of 60 Plus, a seniors association that has been the premier force behind the drive to abolish the estate tax. Much of the modern movement against the tax is due to Martin, who has mobilized tens of thousands of angry seniors through his association, campaigned tirelessly for congressional opponents of the tax and coined the phrase that captured its essence: “death tax.”

Referring to his days after graduating from Yale in 1968 when he was a staffer on the winning U.S. Senate race of conservative Republican Ed Gurney in Florida, George W. Bush, in a filmed tribute recalled how he was hired by Gurney’s right-hand man Jim Martin. 
He and Martin became good friends, said the 43rd President, “and I gave him a nickname—Buddha—because he gave me such wise counsel—and because he had a wider girth than he does now.”

Bush, Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell and House GOP Leader John Boehner, both of whom also filmed salutes, and many friends and political allies warmly recalled the other hats Martin has proudly worn: as a U.S. Marine Corps veteran, newspaper reporter, top aide to Gurney, a vice president of Richard Viguerie’s direct mail company, and head of his own advertising agency

As indefatigable as he has been in his professional and political roles, Martin is also a proud father of seven and grandfather of 15, noted 60 Plus’s national spokesman Pat Boone (who also paid tribute to the honoree’s proud wife Mary Lou by harmonizing a few bars of “Hello, Mary Lou.”).

Others who saluted Jim Martin’s eventful career included Republican National Chairman Michael Steele, Americans for Tax Reform head Grover Norquist and Rep. Joe Wilson (R.-S.C.), who actually drew the biggest ovation of the evening when introduced by emcee Colin Hanna, who said, “He speaks the truth,” referring to Wilson’s now-celebrated shout of “You lie!” at Barack Obama).

The speakers all cited Jim Martin’s well-known loyalty to friends and knack for staying in touch with people, regardless of what position he was in or where he was located.  Many who consider him a friend warmly agreed with the remarks of decorated Vietnam War veteran Bob Martin, who said that being Jim’s younger brother brought to mind the words of baseball great Lou Gehrig:  “I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of the earth.”

John Gizzi is Political Editor of HUMAN EVENTS.

Taxpayer Bill of Rights, Press Conference, 12N, Cannon Terrace

Washington, DC – The 60 Plus Association heartily endorses the Republican Study Committee’s Taxpayer Bill of Rights.

“I draw your attention specifically to the Committee’s manifesto that we’ve become accustomed to every form of taxation under the sun: water tax, gas tax, payroll tax, utility tax, cable tax, property tax and on and on and on. As the RSC puts it, we’re taxed from the moment we wake up with that first cup of coffee to the moment we turn out the lights to go to sleep. The RSC could have added that then when you go to sleep permanently, the Congressional coin collectors have figured out a unique way to tax you again after you’re buried, with the hideous death tax.

While I’ve been credited with popularizing the term death tax for the estate tax, to be accurate Ronald Reagan used the phrase in the 80’s.

To add to the liberal’s discomfort, 60 Plus started an annual contest to add new names to the death tax, and we’ve had contestants come up with some real zingers. Besides calling it the obvious, a cruel tax, an exit or departure tax, here are a few of the more than 40 entries: pine box tax, tombstone tax, the after life tax, the final insult tax, the long goodbye tax, the last grasp tax and, my favorite, the stiffest tax of all.

I’ve circulated a single sheet we at the 60 Plus Association call 10 REASONS TO GET RID OF THE DEATH TAX, excerpted from testimony I gave before a Congressional Committee some 10 years ago. It speaks volumes to why the death tax must go!

This confiscatory levy, repealed and reenacted three times has been with us this fourth time since 1916. In my 40-plus years in this town, I’ve seen a lot of taxes come but not many go. The time for this tax to go has come. We will repeal!”

-30-

Arlington, VA — I believe the Senate was wise to postpone a vote on repeal of the death tax.

But it’s a shame that the terrible Katrina tragedy is being used by the big-spending and big-taxing crowd as an excuse to avoid abolishing a tax harmful to small businesses — the so-called Death Tax — whose repeal would provide immediate and long-term relief to those impacted by this disaster.

Make no mistake, repeal of the death tax is not, I repeat, not a tax cut for the “wealthiest of the wealthy” as Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) describes it, or as her husband called it, a “windfall for the wealthy.” Both Clintons know their position is a con job of the first order. Both know the “wealthiest of the wealthy” don’t pay this confiscatory tax. Either that or they’re both stupid.

Instead, it’s small businesses — that provide over 80% of the jobs in America — and farmers that are hurt. The “wealthiest of the wealthy” set up trusts and foundations. Ever heard of the Hilton Foundation, Rockefeller, Gates, Heinz, Soros Foundations? I could go on but you get the picture.

Self-described “unrequited liberal” Edward McCaffery, a USC professor, calls the death tax a tax that liberals should oppose because of its negative impact, that it’s anti-business expansion and rebuilding businesses and starting new ones is what is seriously needed now in the aftermath of Katrina. To those who lose their jobs due to loss of a business, that’s a tax of 100% on the worker.

Since 1994 in the 103rd Congress, the 60 Plus Association and the National Tax Limitation Committee have delivered thousands of petitions urging Congress to kill the death tax.

It’s not a revenue raiser, it’s a revenue loser or at best, revenue neutral, due to collection and compliance costs. It’s anti-savings. To quote Milton Friedman, “because of the death tax, there’s little need to save, you might as well spend your money on wine, women and song as to save it.” Of course, he’s right. How terrible is it that the first in line when a loved one dies is Uncle Sam, not even a blood relative?

Since coming to the nation’s capital as a young reporter in 1962 when John F. Kennedy was in the White House, I’ve seen a lot of taxes come but not many go. Here’s a tax whose time to go has surely come. It’s been enacted, and repealed, three times. A fourth and final repeal is long overdue.