Conservative Astroturf - Seniors Beware of 60plus
Conspiracists from right-wing talk radio to street corner screamers to Republican members of Congress—all maintain that the provision and the health care bill that says Medicare will pay for the consultation if you want to get a living will, even though was that championed by conservative pro-life Senator Johnny Isakson of Georgia, that‘s actually, secretly a plot to kill your grandparents.
The theory has been presented as fact by Republican members of Congress on the floor of the House of Representatives. It has been promoted by conservative talk show hosts on both radio and on television. It has been Facebook-ed by prominent Republican leaders, like Sarah Palin, who says that she‘s fearful that Obama‘s “death panels” will want to kill her parents.
And now, this bizarre, completely inaccurate, scare-the-seniors, “living wills are really a secret euthanasia mandate” conspiracy theory is the subject of a new television ad that is running nationwide.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) -at link
NARRATOR: For seniors, this will mean long waits for care, cuts to MRIs, CAT Scans, and other vital tests. Seniors may lose their own doctors. The government, not doctors, will decide if older patients are worth the cost.
Tell Congress don‘t pay for health care reform on the backs of our seniors. They‘ve sacrificed enough.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MADDOW: The government will decide if older patients are worth the cost. Death panels, that sounds awful. It also sounds really made up.
As you may have seen at the end of that ad there, the organization that‘s behind this ad is called the 60-plus Association. What‘s the 60 Plus Association? I am so glad you asked.
As we‘ve done with some of the other groups pushing this kind of misinformation about health care reform, we decided to find out exactly who they are.
60 Plus is a registered non-profit organization. They‘re based in Alexandria, Virginia. On their Web site, they describe themselves as a, quote, “non-partisan seniors advocacy group.” Non-partisan.
A look at the group‘s leadership seems to suggest at least a slightly partisan tilt. The president of 60 Plus is a gentleman named Jim Martin. You may remember him from some of his previous and recent advocacy work, such as the Public Service Research Council otherwise known as Americans Against Union Control of Government. He was also involved with the National Conservative Political Action Committee. Hmm, non-partisan.
Alongside Mr. Martin is the group‘s honorary chairman, Roger Zion, who the Web site itself promotes as, quote, “one of Washington‘s leading spokesman for the conservative cause.” Indeed, Roger Zion is a former Republican congressman from Indiana who authored new book called, “The Republican Challenge.”
That‘s who‘s running this non-partisan group that‘s currently running ads scaring old people about President Obama‘s health care reform plans.
And who has a record of funding this organization 60 Plus? Well, when 60 Plus started lobbying against prescription drug reform at the state level a few years ago, AARP actually looked into who was behind them. And they found that, quote, “virtually all of their largest contributions in recent years have come from the same source—the nation‘s pharmaceutical industry.”
In 2003, the drug-maker Pfizer paid 60 Plus to help defeat prescription drug legislation in Minnesota and in New Mexico. According to the AARP‘s investigation, Pfizer, quote, “hired Bonner & Associates, a Washington-based firm that specializes in ‘Astroturf lobbying.‘ The firm‘s paid callers, reading from scripts that identified them as representatives of 60 Plus urged residents to ask their governors to veto the legislation. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. later said it had paid Bonner & Associates to make the calls.”
Why does Bonner & Associates sound so familiar? Oh, yes, they‘re the firm that‘s now being investigated by Congress after they admitted to stealing letterhead and writing fake letters to impersonate groups like the NAACP in their coal industry-funded efforts to defeat climate legislation. Same guys.
60 Plus also appears to have had ties in the past to the platonic form of Washington things or people to whom it is best not to have ties. That, of course, would be Jack Abramoff. According to a “Mother Jones” magazine investigation, Jack Abramoff once instructed an Indian tribe to donate 60 Plus, saying that that would help garner support for their legislative causes with the House GOP leadership.
60 Plus is well-known in Republican and conservative circles. And like other corporate-funded P.R. operations, it often takes on causes that you wouldn‘t logically connect to their stated purpose. The 60 Plus Association, which again, bills itself as a seniors advocacy group, they took on a subject they want us to believe is near and dear to the hearts of seniors.
Back in 2003, it was the issue of nuclear waste, urging Congress to, quote, “move forward and approve the safe storage of nuclear fuel at Yucca Mountain.” Because seniors love nuclear waste being stored in Nevada. Old people love that.
As we‘ve reported on this show before, the campaign against health care reform in this country is being brought to you by professional, corporate-funded, Republican-staffed political P.R. operations. In this case, an organization that promotes itself as non-partisan but appears to be anything but. These are professional P.R. operatives that are scaring real Americans with increasingly paranoid and kooky lies about health care. And they‘re getting rich in the process, thanks to the largess of extremely interested parties who are more than willing to pay for their services.
Also see, 60plus and their previous efforts to "privatize social security", you know give your retirement safety net to the same people that caused the economic melt down on Wall St.
60plus says they are a grassroots organization that truly represents seniors and is all about telling the truth, "Sensitive" Oil Industry Memo Lays Out Plan For Astroturf Rallies Against Climate Change Bill
The memo -- sent by the American Petroleum Institute and obtained by Greenpeace, which sent it to reporters -- urges oil companies to recruit their employees for events that will "put a human face on the impacts of unsound energy policy," and will urge senators to "avoid the mistakes embodied in the House climate bill."
API tells TPMmuckraker that the campaign is being funded by a coalition of corporate and conservative groups that includes the anti-health-care-reform group 60 Plus, FreedomWorks, and Grover Norquist's Americans For Tax Reform.
The memo, signed by API president Jack Gerard, asks recipients to give API "the name of one central coordinator for your company's involvement in the rallies."
And it warns: "Please treat this information as sensitive ... we don't want critics to know our game plan."
Aside from the astroturf nature of the planned events, which appear aimed at passing off industry employees as independent citizens, the memo also raises questions about the positions of several major oil companies on the issue of climate change. BP and Shell both are members of API, and also of the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a coalition of groups that supports Waxman-Markey, the very climate change legislation the memo criticizes.
API has spent over $3 million lobbying against that bill this year.
