Pages

Mar 26, 2011

Can We All Agree That The AARP Isn't A Grassroots Organization?

From The Hill:

Newly empowered House Republicans are getting ready to renew their attacks against AARP [American Association of Retired Persons] over its support for the healthcare reform law, The Hill has learned.

The Ways and Means health and oversight subcommittees are hauling in the seniors lobby's executives before the panel for an April 1 hearing on how the group stands to benefit from the law, among other topics. ...

The hearing will cover not only Medigap but "AARP’s organizational structure, management, and financial growth over the last decade." ...

According to its 2008 tax filing, AARP made $249 million from membership dues but $653 million in payments for lending its name to policies sold to its members by private insurers. Those royalties made up more than 57 percent of its total $1.14 billion in revenues that year. ...

This isn't the first time the AARP's dual role as a consumer advocate and an insurance sponsor has come under scrutiny.

Democrats were furious when the association supported Republicans' Medicare prescription drug bill in 2003 ...
And the AARP's support for "temporarily" reducing the FICA tax is inconsistent with its supposed staunch support for Social Security.

3 comments:

  1. Dropped my membership in 2003 after the drug bill sell-out. Just shred everything that comes in the mail from them. This hearing will be amusing; watching AARP executives take punches from their buddy Republicans...priceless.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I don't think the AARP is buddies with the Republicans so much as they are with the Democrats.

    I dropped my AARP membership because of their support of Obamacare. The AARP membership was pretty worthless anyway, any discounts I get from AARP I could get from AAA.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Congress should be careful about messing too much with AARP. They still represent a lot of people and they are the ones who consistently vote!!

    ReplyDelete