60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, “This committee had one purpose only; force Republicans to raise taxes.  The GOP should be commended to sticking firm.”

(Alexandria, Virginia) – The bi-partisan so-called ‘Super Committee’ failed to meet its November 21st deadline to cut $1.2 trillion of federal spending over the next decade.  Also, Democrats and President Obama failed in their attempt to get Republican members to agree to a tax increase, an event that drew the praise of 60 Plus Chairman Jim Martin, the leader of the nation’s largest conservative seniors advocacy group, counting over 7 million supporters across the nation.

“From the start, this Committee had one goal only, and that was to formalize the process by which to pressure Republicans to raise taxes, and they didn’t take the bait.  Republicans on the committee should be commended for not only doing serious work and putting two reasonable proposals on the table, but also for not caving to the lobbying of this Administration and the media to raise taxes.

“The Democrats were never serious about cutting spending, or reforming entitlements like Medicare and Social Security, which are absolutely necessary to put our nation on sound financial footing.  To this day, they have yet to offer ONE proposal to keep entitlements solvent, but they have offered hundreds of pieces of legislation to increase our debt by tens of trillions of dollars – a historic failure of leadership if there ever was one.

“Republicans held the high ground, offering serious proposals and refusing the Democrats’ transparent political agenda of forcing a tax increase. What Democrats fail to admit and the media fail to report, is that taxes are already going up by trillions over the next ten years, as every single dollar spent by the government is a tax on Americans who work for a living.  And of all segments of society, it is seniors on fixed incomes who are most hurt by higher taxes and most vulnerable to massive deficit spending.

“CBO numbers show that even with $1.2 trillion in spending reductions, overall government spending will increase just as much over the next 10 years, which is a tax increase on working Americans, future workers, and even on those yet to be born.  This committee failed because the trillions the President chooses to waste for his stimulus projects and health care legislation were off the table.  The government can’t go on a diet if the fattiest foods are still part of its daily menu, which demonstrates why this committee failed, and why it deserved to do so.”

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