Another Stab In The Back By AARP
AARP mentioned in a TV campaign ad for Obama. AARP mis-labeled as a non-partisan group. Hardly! August 2012
AARP Organizes Secret Sit Down With
Washington Insiders To Discuss Cuts To Social Security
Last year, AARP’s board quietly voted to support cuts to Social Security but continued to talk out of the other side of its mouth to its members about “protecting and strengthening” Social Security. So, don’t listen to what AARP says; watch what it does. And what it does is hobnob with Washington elites to feather its own nest at the expense of America’s seniors. Billions and billions of dollars of insurance revenues and government grants for AARP, Social Security benefit cuts and tax increases for seniors.
The truth is, AARP has become a wholly owned subsidiary of the Obama Administration. Its role is to keep seniors in the dark and quiescent while the Washington insiders plot how to cut Social Security so they can keep up their big-spending ways. For example, The AARP Foundation received $18 million in Obama stimulus funds for a “work training program for mature workers.” The project is listed as “completed” and the number of jobs created is listed at “ZERO.” AARP gets another Washington boondoggle; America’s seniors get the same old shaft.
Last week’s announcement that AARP will secretly meet again this year with the “Cut Social Security Crowd” indicates the Social Security debate is heating up again as Congress confronts what to do about theautomatic spending cuts (the so-call “Sequester”) scheduled to kick in at the beginning of 2013. The Sequester Spending Cuts exempt Social Security from cuts so the Washington elites who want to cut SocialSecurity must find some way to derail or reroute the Sequester to include Social security.
To soften up seniors last year, AARP first put out a feeler when a top AARP official told the Wall Street Journal the organization was open to cuts to the entitlement programs, including Social Security. Thisbetrayal of senior citizens came during the discussions of a so-called “grand bargain” on deficit reduction, involving tax hikes and Social Security cuts, which supposedly would have trimmed $4 trillion off the deficit in 10 years. While these talks were under way, the AARP board voted to drop its opposition to Social Security cuts.
You know AARP is one of the most powerful lobby groups in Washington. It has hoodwinked seniors for a half century hiding behind the sweet face of Betty White and the authoritative voice of Morgan Freeman. While AARP earns billions of dollars selling seniors insurance they could just as well purchase at better prices elsewhere, AARP works behind the scenes with Washington politicians to expand government and raise taxes at seniors’ expense. Don’t forget, when it came time to slash Medicare $550 billion to pay for the new ObamaCare welfare program, AARP was right there to help President Obama do the dirty deed.
Now, AARP is up to no good again.
Last week the Huffington Post was leaked an AARP invitation to a secret“Relaxed and Robust Evening of 'Salon Style' Conversation” to be held at a Capitol Hill home on March 27 to discuss the future of Social Security. The invitation to this clandestine strategy session with known Social Security slashers indicates that AARP is still very much interested in a “grand-bargain” style deal that includes tax increases and cuts to Social Security benefits.
The AARP invitation reads: "As Congress and the administration continue to debate the critical economic choices confronting the nation, Barry Rand is convening a group of senior-level principals for an informal salon-style conversation to discuss the importance of strengthening and preserving Social Security." Note the Code Words: “strengthening and preserving Social Security.”
TRANSLATION: CUTTING SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS.
The 2012 salon is scheduled to take place at the Capitol Hill home of Robert Raben, a lobbyist with The Raben Group, a liberal lobbying group that includes among its clients an anti-gun group, Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the National Education Association (NEA) and the UN Foundation.
Seniors have learned that when politicians and traitorous seniors groups say the words “tax reform,” they really mean “tax increases.” Well, you better add a new section to your codebook for understanding what is going on in Washington. When politicians and traitorous seniors groups say the words “strengthening and preserving Social Security,” they really mean “cutting Social Security benefits, raising taxes on some seniors and turning Social Security into a welfare program.”
If AARP is so concerned about the dangers of the federal deficit, why don’t they give that $18 million back? Maybe because they already spent it. The AARP Foundation’s 2008 IRS 990 form lists executive salaries as follows:
- $1,005,380 William D. Novelis
- $625,857 Thomas C. Nelson
- $452,667 Lin MacMaster (includes a $172,000 severance payment)
- $421,679 Nancy A. Leamond
- $417,246 Emilio Pardo
- $409,560 Joan S. Wise
- $398,432 Robert R. Hagans Jr.
- $375,449 Shereen G. Remez
- $361,352 John C. Rother
- $358,222 Kevin J. Donnellan
- $351,278 Ellen Hollander
- $350,836 Hugh Delehanty
- $335,120 David Sloane
- $334,330 Harroll Backus
- $332,865 Nancy Smith
- $328,138 Susan Reinhard
- $327,293 Matthew Rosser
- $324,219 Matthew Mitchell
No business willingly suffers the kind of brand damage supporting Social Security cuts will mean for AARP. So, why are they doing it? One can only conclude AARP’s support for Social Security cuts, like its previous support for Medicare cuts is a “lost leader,” a stalking horse for its real master—the Obama Administration and the liberal establishment in Washington.
And one other thing, AARP would not be so open about what it is up to unless the deal was already in the works, and it is. There is a bipartisan consensus among Washington elites that Social Security benefits must be cut, people must be forced to work longer and Social Security must be transformed from an earned-benefits program into another welfare program.
Defend America,
Lawrence A. Hunter, Ph.D.Social Security Institute
4305 Fauquier Avenue, Suite A
P.O Box 216
The Plains, Virginia 20198
No comments:
Post a Comment