Betrayal of America’s Seniors will be groups’ legacy from healthcare debate .

(Alexandria, Virginia) – Regardless of the outcome tomorrow of the Supreme Court’s ruling on President Obama’s health care overhaul, aka, “Obamacare,” the AARP will limp forward with a damaged reputation and virtually no credibility with America’s seniors, says 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors advocacy organization.

Thanks in large part to the work of Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and his Energy and Commerce Committee, the AARP was exposed through a series of hidden emails hiding their deep and central involvement in back rooms of the White House and DCCC in helping whip votes to pass the legislation, as well as allow the White House to direct their grassroots and advocacy campaign to their members to sell the bill.  During this time, the AARP was ignoring their own members, who were voicing their opinion against the bill by a ratio of 14 to 1, while AARP was falsely portraying themselves as neutral in the debate.

Said Martin, “The sad and ugly truth is that the AARP sold out seniors for the almighty dollar.  They stand to gain hundreds of millions of dollars from the health care law, and when their members called to say ‘NO’ to Obamacare by a ratio of 14 to 1, they ignored them and conspired with the White House to change the message.

“Now AARP says they are on a ‘listening tour’ – but their chance to listen was two years ago, it’s too late now for them to pretend to care what seniors think.  It is time for the AARP to come clean and tell seniors why they were doing the work of the White House and not seniors.

What did the White House promise in return for their efforts?  Why did AARP push legislation its own membership overwhelmingly opposed?  These are very troubling questions that AARP must answer.  With each revelation about their activities, AARP looks less and less like a seniors advocacy group, and more like an annex of the Democratic party.

“The AARP was THE reason this bill passed, without their political cover, the Democrats would never have mustered enough votes to pass this Frankenstein monster.  Now they have to answer for their sins, for their betrayal of seniors, and muffling seniors’ voices during one of the most critical debates in our nation’s history.  This stain of shame won’t be washed clean any time soon.”

– 30-