By James L. Martin

Arlington, VA — “The 60 Plus Association registers its strongest opposition to last week’s vote on the emergency supplemental spending bill for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan,” said Association President Jim Martin in a statement after the vote.

Martin characterized the vote, approved by a razor thin 218-212 margin, as showing there is “no national will to hurt our brave men and women in uniform fighting overseas. By imposing a false timetable for their withdrawal,” Martin said, “such a departure could spell disaster for Iraq and Afghanistan, its citizens and the progress we’ve made there these past four years to bring stability to those regions. Not to mention the denigration of those who have died or been injured serving in those conflicts these past four years; it’s just political manipulation.”

Martin further cited his outrage over the earmarks the House placed in the bill. “To approve earmarks, as this legislation does, is unconscionable. Please explain to me how adding in excess of $20 billion of pork for things like peanut storage or salmon fisheries or set-asides for spinach growers has anything whatsoever to do with the emergency supplemental requested by the President that provides funds for our soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq, or as he also requested, hurricane relief. This is politics at its worst.”

60 Plus is a national seniors’ association whose 4.5 million supporters are comprised largely of military veterans and their families.

“The President has said he’d like congressional leaders ‘to pass a clean bill that does not use funding for our troops as leverage to get special-interest spending for the districts.’ “Amen to that,” Martin concluded.

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