(Washington, DC) – The following comments were made by 60 Plus Association Chairman and Founder Jim Martin at a press conference today at the House Triangle, in support of a Resolution offered by Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA), Chairman of the House Republican Study Committee, expressing the sense of Congress that a carbon tax would have dire consequences on America’s economy:

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My name is Jim Martin, Chairman and Founder of the 60 Plus Association. On behalf of our 7.2 million senior citizen activists across the nation I’m here to say, America’s seniors don’t want this oppressive tax!

In an apparent moment of honesty, it was candidate Barack Obama who announced, — and this is his exact quote from a video-taped interview with the San Francisco Chronicle back in January of 2008: “Under my plan of a cap-and-trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket.”  Well the carbon tax is just the trick to make sure ALL Americans, including seniors on declining incomes, pay through the nose for energy.

Carbon is a byproduct of industry, of work, of productivity. Taxing activity that creates wealth and prosperity to make government bigger is going to make us poorer, not better off.  And once it is passed — good luck getting rid of it, it will only get bigger.  60 Plus has worked for decades to abolish the death tax, which was to be a temporary tax to help fund WWI, and this ‘temporary tax’ is just a few years short of celebrating its centennial anniversary.

President Obama may say he has no plans for a carbon tax, but he also said he wasn’t for an individual mandate for healthcare, so we know he can “evolve” at any moment.  I’m proud to be here today to say this Resolution needs support, it certainly has support from America’s seniors, who frankly don’t need a bigger bite taken from their diminishing incomes.  And this Administration is puzzled as to why it has lost the senior citizen vote the last two election cycles?  Go figure.  Thank you.

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