For Immediate Release September 5, 2000

Seniors Group Endorses Bush Prescription Drug Plan

Criticizes Gore For His Seven Year Silence

Washington, D.C. — The 60 Plus Association, a non-partisan senior citizens organization with a half million supporters nationally, strongly endorsed Governor George W. Bush’s plan unveiled today to provide seniors with prescription drug and other improved benefits.

60 Plus Association President Jim Martin stated, “Governor Bush’s plan builds upon the common sense approach of the National Bipartisan Commission on the Future of Medicare. It strengthens Medicare, help seniors pay for all or part of Medicare premiums and subsidizes prescription drug costs, with low-income seniors receiving special help. No senior should have to make a choice between putting food on the table or being able to afford the prescription drugs they need to stay alive. Seniors know they can count on the Bush-Cheney plan to ensure that their golden years are spent doing all those things that bring joy to their lives and their families.”

On the other hand, after seven and a half years, Vice President Gore has suddenly decided to talk about the need for a prescription drug benefit. His silence on this issue for so long was deafening.

His newfound interest in ‘shoring up Medicare and Social Security’ is an election year attempt to sucker punch seniors for political gain. His pledge to protect the Social Security and Medicare Trust Funds with a lock box rings hollow when you consider that the House of Representatives voted over a year ago on May 26, 1999 to do just that, by an overwhelming 416-12 bipartisan margin.

Equally hollow is his warning that he will veto any attempts to spend Social Security surpluses since he never once objected to the annual spending of Social Security surpluses during his 16 years in Congress, even though other Democrats spoke out against the practice,” Martin concluded, specifically citing Senator Fritz Hollings (D-SC) who criticized the practice as ’embezzlement’.

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