(Alexandria, Virginia) – The fiscal 2013 budget President Obama submitted to Congress yesterday adds another dubious distinction to its historic record of debt; a projection of Social Security going into the red for the first time in the program’s history.  According to Obama’s budget blueprint, the Social Security trust fund will be depleted in 2022, and show $2.6 billion in debt, prompting a statement from 60 Plus Association Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the largest national conservative seniors advocacy organization:

“The President is working overtime to bankrupt America, and he’s getting practice by bankrupting Social Security as a warm-up,” said Martin. “For the first time in our history, the Social Security trust fund is literally going to be a ‘bust fund,’ with zero assets in reserve, which will leave future retirees with benefits slashed to the bone.”

“The President did not mention Social Security once — not one single time — in his seven page letter to Congress that accompanied his budget. This is a staggering failure of leadership and candor with the American public, and shows just how little he cares about these vital programs for America’s seniors and future retirees. There is no trust left with this President.

“Obama will be remembered by seniors and American workers as the President who let Social Security to broke on his watch. He has billions to spend on giveaways to his friends in the unions, to his political contributors’ failed green energy companies, and to liberal politicians’ pet projects and constituencies, but he has not even one word to say about the most important worker-supported entitlement program in our nation, or how to save it. Absolutely disgraceful.”

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(Alexandria, Virginia) – New data on the Social Security trust fund released by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) actuaries projects a loss of $1 trillion from the trust fund just over the past year.  The latest numbers demonstrate that the program, already in serious financial straits, has taken a major blow due to the economic and fiscal policies of President Obama, who has led the nation into a stretch of record-setting deficits and unemployment, two factors that heavily affect the health and outlook for the Social Security trust fund.

Said 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 and Medicare continue to be casualties of this Administration’s profligate spending and budget malfeasance.  This is a complete and total dereliction of duty, and future retirees, as well as some current recipients, will be devastated as their meager benefits will be cut even further to compensate for the money this President is bleeding from the trust fund.”

CBO lays blame at this breathtaking downward spiral on the diminished contributions into the trust fund due to the poor economy and long-term rates of unemployment. The low value of U.S. Treasuries is also a significant contributor, as deficit spending has lowered the interest rate the Treasury pays to redeem the money it has borrowed from the Social Security trust fund.

“The President is leaving a tremendous mess, that will have to be cleaned up by the next President and Congress. All attempts to address this crisis from Republicans leaders in the Congress have been ignored so the President can continue to play political games with Social Security, such as threatening non-payment of benefits, so he can continue to spend our nation into bankruptcy.

“History will remember Barack Obama as not just the biggest spender in the history of our nation, but the President who did more than any single individual to help kill Social Security and devastate the lives of America’s seniors.”

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(Alexandria, Virginia) – 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors advocacy group, responded today to a new national television ad campaign being rolled out from the AARP.  The ad admonishes members of Congress working on debt reduction not to cut Medicare and Social Security benefits.

Martin noted that the AARP has never aired an ad campaign informing seniors of their support in favor of over $500 billion in cuts to Medicare to help fund the President’s health care legislation, or the hundreds of millions of dollars the group makes selling insurance products to seniors, an enterprise which profits extensively from seniors displaced by Medicare cuts.

“Here we go again. Barack Obama’s poll numbers are plummeting, especially among older Americans, and his auxiliary campaign headquarters over at the AARP puts out an ad pretending they care about seniors and protecting Medicare and Social Security. This ad isn’t just empty rhetoric, it is outright deceit, and it will do absolutely nothing to stem the tide of the elderly who are already looking forward to making their voices heard in the voting booth next year.

“After watching the senior tsunami of 2010, Obama and the AARP are now singing a different tune, and have somehow morphed into the saviors of Medicare with their veto threats and lectures on any proposed ‘cuts’ to Medicare. What seniors ask when they see this ad is, ‘Where were you two years ago when you were pushing the biggest cuts in the history of Medicare?’

“When Obama says ‘jump’ the AARP says ‘how high.’  When Obama says he needs to cut Medicare, the AARP says ‘how much?’  Now they spend millions on TV ads funded by our taxpayer dollars painting themselves as the defenders of Medicare?  This is the classic AARP shuffle; one step forward, two steps back. Every time the AARP gets behind this Administration’s continued attack on seniors and their benefits, like clockwork you see them roll out more ads, wagging a finger in the face of someone else.

“The Democrats and their amen chorus over at the AARP clearly think that seniors are gullible and have a very short memory.  But no matter how much money the AARP sinks into commercials filled with empty rhetoric and political posturing, seniors will remember their continued betrayal, and their allegiance to the most anti-senior citizen President in our history.”

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His comments come as Republican candidates prepare for a televised debate in Tampa this evening.

“Seniors have been political pawns for one party now for 50 years.  It’s a given that every election cycle Democrats scare seniors into the voting booth by demonizing  Republicans, and falsely claiming Republicans  want to destroy the Social Security system.  

“So to hear Republicans squabbling over Social Security is pretty disconcerting.  Seniors deserve better.”

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