Mr. Martin serves as the President of the 60 Plus Association, which has been called an "increasingly influential lobbying group for the elderly--often viewed as the conservative alternative to the American Association of Retired Persons."
Jim Martin joined the Marine Corps in 1953 at age 17 as the Korean "conflict" concluded and served on active duty until 1958. In 1955, his Battalion Commander awarded Jim a meritorious citation for "exemplary conduct and leadership qualities exhibited in the performance of duties." In 1956 Sergeant Jim Martin began a two-year tour of duty as an elite Marine Security Guard at the American Embassy in Jakarta, Indonesia.
Jim entered the University of Florida in 1959 and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Journalism in 1962, where he received the William Randolph Hearst reporting award for creative writing. Jim came to Washington in 1962 where he covered Congress and the White House for two years during the Kennedy-Johnson administration as a newspaper reporter and radio/TV broadcaster for 3 dozen media outlets in the South. Jim served for six years as Chief of Staff to Congressman, then Senator, the late Edward J. Gurney (R-FL), 1964-69.
He has helped to organize and direct several advocacy groups including the National Conservative Political Action Committee (NCPAC) and the Public Service Research Council (PSRC) (Americans Against Union Control of Government), which opposes public sector compulsory unionism as a threat to elected representation
60 Plus is a hard hitting organization dedicated to protecting the tax rights of seniors, and to repealing the most confiscatory of all taxes--the inheritance or estate (death) tax. Jim Martin has been quoted as saying that while there are two certainties in life, taxes and death, now, thanks to the death tax, Jim adds a third certainty--taxes after death. 60 Plus presents a Benjamin Franklin Award to Members of Congress in both parties who sponsor legislation to abolish the third certainty, taxes after death. Original sponsors are Rep. Chris Cox (R-CA) and Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ).
60 Plus, now eleven years old, has grown to over 500,000 citizen lobbyists nationally. 60 Plus is the only conservative senior citizens group to publish a Congressional Rating System, scoring Members of Congress based on their pro-senior votes. In the 105th Congress, 60 Plus presented the non-partisan GUARDIAN OF SENIORS' RIGHTS AWARD, to 254 Members, Republicans and Democrats, in both the House and the Senate.
Mr. Martin has also been a vocal critic of taxpayer subsidized political advocacy groups. In 1995, he testified four times before Congress on this volatile issue where he spotlighted the fact that more than 40 seniors' organizations receive hundreds of millions of tax dollars and, as Jim puts it, "politick openly and blatantly with said dollars." Jim correctly pointed out that this was "just the tip of the iceberg" and subsequent Congressional investigations substantiated the charge that there is at least a '39 billion dollar dirty little secret' in Washington, to wit your "tax dollars at work in all sorts of illegal ways and for political activities for which you may not be in agreement."
Seniors depend largely on the medical expertise provided to them by their physicians. We have little choice but to trust that they are helping us make good health decisions, and most importantly, putting safety first.
That is why I was surprised by a recent report in the Wall Street Journal on a dispute over whether or not unapproved colchicine medications should be prescribed to patients for the treatment of gout flares despite the availability of approved ones.
Unapproved drugs have never been tested for proper dosage, regimen and possible interactions with other medications. Accounting for two percent of the total drug marketplace in the United States, they have been associated with countless injuries and hundreds of deaths. Advocating for the use of an unapproved drug despite the availability of a tested, approved medication for the same purpose is nothing less than irresponsible.
The FDA understands the dangers posed by unapproved drugs. Since the announcement of their “Unapproved Drugs Initiative,” in which the agency committed to removing unapproved drugs from America’s pharmacies, they have successfully cleared over 500 untested products from the market. That’s a good start to this problem.
In recent months they have been active, sending warning letters to manufacturers of untested nitroglycerine and morphine products. In addition, the agency cracked down on OSR#1, an untested children’s autism therapy drug which fails to warn users of potential side effects that could include “abnormalities of the pancreas.”
Your local pharmacy is a safer place due to the FDA’s efforts, and we at the 60 Plus Association have formally encouraged the FDA to continue their work to enforce the Unapproved Drugs Initiative and pick up the pace because there is no time to waste when it comes to patient safety.
The responsibility to protect patients from avoidable deaths does not lie only with the FDA, however. Manufacturers and distributors must also stop supplying unapproved drugs to patients. And doctors, who often prescribe untested drugs unknowingly, must make sure they are prescribing approved drugs whenever possible, keeping in mind that safety comes first when it comes to treating patients.
If we are to provide Americans with the safest drug marketplace possible, this is a lesson that all who are involved in providing drugs to the patients of America will need to understand.
Mr. Martin is Chairman of the 60 Plus Association, formed in 1992 as a non-partisan seniors’ advocacy group with a free-enterprise, limited government, lower taxes mission and a strict adherence to the Constitution. www.60plus.org.
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