Chairman: “Unlike AARP, 60 Plus will listen to seniors”

Kickoff Tour: Florida, Virginia, Ohio

(Alexandria, Virginia) – The 60 Plus Association, the leading conservative seniors organization with over 7.2 million supporters, is launching its “Healthcare Freedom” bus tour next Thursday to discuss with seniors their reaction to the controversial health care bill passed in 2010.

The bus tour, which will hit Florida, Virginia, and Ohio in the first stage, will recruit AARP members who are upset with the organization’s support of the bill which cuts Medicare, cripples Medicare Advantage, and remains unpopular with seniors.

60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, a former Florida newspaperman, emphasized, “We believe Congress, controlled in 2010 by Democrats, aided and abetted by the AARP, did an injustice to seniors by ramming an unread 2,700 page health care overhaul down our throats, ending Medicare as we know it by slashing a half trillion dollars from the program that seniors have paid into all of their lives, resulting in seniors voting in record numbers in the 2010 elections, defeating dozens of Democrats who supported the bill.”

The bus tour kicks off in Sarasota June 21, and concludes the Florida portion June 23 in Port St. Lucie. It then travels to Virginia with stops in Richmond and Virginia Beach June 25 before ending with events June 26-28 in Cleveland, Columbus and Cincinnati, Ohio.  Legendary entertainer Pat Boone, national spokesman for 60 Plus, and other dignitaries are expected to make appearances along the way.

“A majority of seniors are still vehemently opposed to this ‘bad medicine.’  It’s clear AARP did a disservice to its members two years ago and continues to do a disservice to them today by continuing to promote this Medicare-killing legislation. Now faced with a backlash, AARP announced it is on a ‘listening tour.’ They should have listened two years ago.”

60 Plus was founded by Martin 20 years ago and has some 7.2 million.  Unlike the AARP, which has received hundreds of millions of tax dollars, 60 Plus accepts only voluntary donations from over a quarter-million donors.

The 60 Plus bus has a replica of its own AARP bumper sticker reproduced in giant letters on the outside of the bus, ‘AARP: Association Against Retired Persons.’  The side panels read: ‘Healthcare Freedom Tour; Bringing Generations Together.’

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