Jim Martin: “Senator DeMint deserves tremendous credit for exposing AARP’s anti-senior agenda and history.”

(Buffalo, NY) – 60 Plus Association Chairman Jim Martin issued the following statement today regarding the report issued by Senator Jim DeMint (R-SC) condemning the AARP for proclaiming itself an advocate for America’s elderly, while consistently lobbying on behalf of legislation that hurts seniors while increasing their own bottom line.

Titled ‘Profits before Principles,’ the report also highlights a pattern of deception and deceit by AARP to hide its lobbying efforts from their membership and the American public at large.  Martin was contacted in Buffalo for his reaction to the DeMint report, pausing on the 60 Plus national bus tour that will conclude its six weeks in Florida in early October, where 800,000 senior supporters reside.

“For nearly two decades we at 60 Plus have referred to the AARP as the Association Against Retired Persons, and no better case has been made for the truth of this statement than Senator DeMint’s report.  It is fair, it is thorough and it is damning in its conclusion that the AARP has forsaken seniors long ago in their chase for obscene profits, and to lobby for the big-government policies that will keep them happily feeding at the trough.

“Many eyebrows were raised months back when we helped expose that AARP executives worked behind the scenes to lobby for Obamacare’s passage even though their own members registered their opposition to the bill by a margin of 14 to 1.  While the President’s healthcare law cuts over $700 billion from Medicare, it adds over $1 billion to AARP’s bottom line.  But that’s the REAL AARP, where betraying seniors is just ‘business as usual.’

“The AARP is literally stealing money from seniors’ pockets.  By lobbying against Medigap reform, they preserved $1.8 billion in insurance revenue, while costing the average senior $415 per year.  This is just reprehensible, and there should be a criminal investigation into their willful and craven efforts to deceive seniors while pretending to be a pro-seniors organization.

“Sadly, the AARP was once truly a respected seniors organization, founded by Dr. Ethel Percy Andrus, a retired school teacher, in 1958.  I am sure she would be heartbroken to see what her beloved organization has become, a lobbying goliath that puts the almighty dollar first, and seniors last.

“While today’s AARP continues to betray seniors and all Americans to protect their bottom line, the REAL bottom line is this; the AARP has lost all credibility, seniors no longer trust the AARP to speak for them.”

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