I haven’t written much lately about the insurance sales organization doing business as a senior citizens advocacy group using the name AARP.
You have AARP, among other corporate sell-outs, to thank for Obamacare, as I posted in 2009-2010:
- When Will AARP, Consumers Union and AMA Be Held To Account for Obamacare?
- AARP Rides To Obamacare’s Rescue, Again
- Alphabet Soup of Health Care Delusions
- AARP and Consumers Union Should Put Their Money Where Their Pro-Tax Mouths Are
- AARP Prepares To Sell Out Seniors
- AARP Shills for Kennedy
So Paul Ryan being booed by an organization which has caused so much damage to our economy and our health care system should be viewed as a badge of honor.
Update: I had not seen this article by Kimberley Strassel (h/t reader), The Love Song of AARP and Obama whcih reveals how devious AARP was in helping pass Obamacare:
Thanks to just-released emails from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, we now know that AARP worked through 2009-10 as an extension of a Democratic White House, toiling daily to pass a health bill that slashes $716 billion from Medicare, strips seniors of choice, and sets the stage for rationing. We know that despite AARP’s awareness that its seniors overwhelmingly opposed the bill, the “nonpartisan membership organization” chose to serve the president’s agenda.
The 71 pages of emails show an AARP management taking orders from the White House, scripting the president’s talking points, working to keep its board “in line,” and pledging fealty to “the cause.” Seniors deserve to know all this, as AARP seeks to present itself as neutral in this presidential election.
AARP disgusts me.
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He handled this so well.
Most certainly, Paul Ryan has earned and, if we are so fortunate, may well earn other “combat” badges in his service to and for this country. Sometimes, the more difficult disagreements are between those who agree on so many other points, yet disagree on a major one that has such emotional energy behind it.
That he can maintain by “disagreeing without becoming disagreeable” speaks so well of him. History may well record him as the civilian equivalent to the military’s most highly decorated “soldier”!
http://www.c-span.org/Campaign2012/Events/Paul-Ryan-Speech-to-AARP-Members/10737434297/
This is the FULL speech and questions he took after. The clip you hear ad nauseum is at about the 5:00 minute mark, and represent seniors booing even the mention of Obamacare. They had just heard a full dose of pandering by Obama via satelitte. That crowd was not happy after hearing from Obama.
Now note starting at the 23:00 mark where, after patiently explaining reality, he comes back to the same statement and gets applause.
Listen to the questions and answers. Applause. You can criticize AARP for being in the bag for Obama, but senior voters most emphatically are not.
I would entitle the vid “Grace Under Pressure.” What couldn’t be done with a dozen or so like him!
Anyone in or about to enter their ‘senior years’ is cordially invited to look into AMAC: Association of Mature Adult Citizens. I heard about this fine, straight shootin’ alternate to AARP on Dennis Miller, Michael Medved, Hugh Hewitt and Dennis Prager. This Gray Beard dropped the Obama supporting AARP and joined the No Bull***t AMAC.
Baa-Daa-Bing. Like dat.
This is like getting booed by the Supreme Soviet.
The take-over or AARP by the Collective is a case-study in how they subvert erstwhile neutral organizations.
On a related note, Sen. Alan Simpson on Capital Account discussing budget negotiations, including AARP’s intransigence.
Senator Alan Simpson on Deficit Cutting
(via Market-Ticker)
Seems AARP never mails out anything but insurance policy offers.
Did they help write the “ObamadontCare bill?” I’m asking.
Maybe they are looking for some street money. Snark Snark
“‘Street money’ triggers blow-up at Texas Coalition of Black Democrats meeting”
“Dozens of folks gathered at a bar last week in the Cedars neighborhood of Dallas in anticipation of a good old-fashioned political fight.
And they came ready to persuade, not just with oratory but with envelopes of cash, providing a window into the seedier side of street-level politics.
http://www.dallasnews.com/news/columnists/gromer-jeffers-jr/20120416-street-money-triggers-blow-up-at-texas-coalition-of-black-democrats-meeting.ece
Two days ago (9/20) the Wall Street Journal published an article about just how deeply the AARP was in bed with the Obama administration when it came to Obamacare. Emails, obtained by FOIA requests show a concerted effort on the part of AARP to coordinate the Obama talking points in order to persuade seniors, who were skeptical about the reduction in Medicare funds available to them, to support Obamacare.
Add to that the investigative report done by Representatives Wally Herger (R-Pa) and Dave Reichert (R-WA) that reveals the machinations of the AARP and why it should lose its 501(c)3 status.
AARP also falsifies its membership numbers as it counts as a member anyone it has sent a card to. All that is required for a person to receive a card is to simply turn 55. One should ask; who provides that data to AARP and is it a violation of our privacy rights for the government to let AARP know when we have a 50th birthday?
No one I know, over the age of 50, belongs to, or actually pays due to, the AARP. Yet, I promise you, all of them are considered “members.” When they send me junk mail, I remove anything with my name on it, and send the rest of the junk mail, including the window envelope it came in, back to them. Let AARP cover the cost of the postage.
The AARP is like the AMA in that it claims members it doesn’t have. Asking my cardiologist the other day how many doctors he knows in Austin that belong to the AMA, his answer was prompt “None” he said. The AARP doesn’t work in the behalf of seniors as promoted, it works in behalf of making money just like any other capitalist organization and should not be classifed as a 501(c)3, just as the AMA doesn’t work on behalf of patients.
It is time we stop allowing these groups to sell out those they claim to represent.
I do the same thing. I find the heaviest pieces of junk mail I can find and stuff that envelope full – I’m hoping they have to pay by the ounce!
I read an article earlier this year that said AARP had legally dropped the words “American Association for Retired Persons” from its corporate name. Apparently, it’s just AARP now, and those letters stand for nothing. The article did not say why they dropped the name, but I assume their lawyers were concerned that the organization might be sued for (falsely) passing itself off as an advocate for the interests of senior citizens, when it is anything but that.
AARP is a non-profit, but many people are not aware that the non-profit AARP has a wholly-owned subsidiary, AARP Services, Inc., which is a for-profit, money-making machine. It makes money — and lots of it — by selling the AARP endorsement to insurance companies, which then peddle their insurance products to millions of seniors. AARP Services gets a royalty on each policy sold. Its 2008 financial documents reported it made nearly $1 Billion that year alone.
AARP the non-profit started out in the 1950’s as an advocacy organization for seniors, but its mission has dramatically changed in recent years. The problem is, many seniors don’t understand what AARP has become. AARP no longer serves the interests of seniors; it is now primarily interested in serving AARP Service’s financial interests, often at the expense of seniors’ interests.
The Obamacare debacle was a good example of how AARP operates. As that Wall Street Journal article explained, AARP executives (several of whom have moved on to positions in the Obama administration) knew that AARP members were strongly opposed to Obamacare’s passage; AARP was keeping track of calls from its members, and they were overwhelmingly against the bill. But AARP continued to push for its passage anyway, even though they knew it would strip $716 Billion Dollars in Medicare funding, which would have a very significant, and adverse, effect on seniors’ medical care. AARP did not care, because AARP Services stood to make billions of dollars in fees by endorsing Medigap policies (which many more seniors would need to buy, once Obamacare went into effect and Medicare services were reduced).
Anyone who has a senior family member or friend needs to make sure they know the facts about AARP.
I do the same. I also stick a note inside to the perform an anatomical impossibility you Anti American Rapacious Pigs.
AARP is one of those organizations that claims to be one thing, that most people are interested in while, in practice, acting as something entirely different.
AARP has convinced a LOT of older people into thinking it represents their interests. One article recently (sorry, can’t find the link) described it primarily as a financial services business. Publicly, it is an aggressive propagandist for the Democrat party.
To me these last 2 things make the first one seem
… dishonest.
I have no idea why my comment submitted itself before I was done typing it. Computers are a mystery to me. I’ve only been working with them for 40 years.
Just blame it on the Obama Goober-Mint! LOL
Maybe Obama was experimenting with his new
“Kill Internet Switch” and that did it to your post.
Just kidding, but…..
FYI: The black CEO of AARP, Barry (aka “barack”) Rand has been a frequent guest in the OBOZO White House. He has donated thousands to the OBOZO campaign. He ignored the best interests of seniors to back OBOZOCARE / OBOZOTAX for AARP’s (and his own) PROFIT.
AARP = an organization to be shunned and ignored by all responsible Americans until it – like America – gets responsible leadership.
Wall Street Journal, 21 SEP12, Kimberley A. Strassel:
“Thanks to just-released emails from the House Energy and Commerce Committee, we now know that AARP worked through 2009-2010 as an extension of a Democratic White House, toiling daily to pass a health bill that slashes $716 Billion from Medicare, strips seniors of choice, and sets the stage for rationing…the ‘nonpartisan membership organization’ chose to serve the president’s agenda.”
AARP is morphing into the seniors eqivalent of Planned Parenthood. Their next inevitable step will be to promote duty to die. The question then becomes do they then promote Dignity Centres where for a price they will provide suitable surroundings as they “Put you to Sleep.”
Never have and never will be a member of AARP. This is a shill organization for the democrat party, insurance companies just to line the pockets a a greedy few.
I watched a good part of Ryan’s address and it didn’t take long to realize that this was hostile territory indeed. Never mind common sense solution or a recognition of the truth but rather follow the “kick-the-can-down-the-road” mentality of the democrat party.
Sad really but reality as it exists today…
I was in a conversation with a few “seniors”, ones I thought ought to know better. Not only are they Obama supporters, when I mentioned Ryan they went “ballistic”!
I guess the old routine, no matter whether it’s true or not say it loud and say it often and it’ll stick, has had its impact about Ryan.
Ryan’s the best candidate out there although the deficit is not a short term problem.
But Romney has to talk incessantly about how he’s going to help the poor and minorities the way Reagan did and how Obama, despite his words, is going to turn us into Greece full of union workers being paid too much and 20% of people not working or barely working and growth forever declining. He seems like a plutocrat.
Why was he even there?
AARP besides lobbying for bills that are actually harmful to seniors also has made a huge business out of scamming those seniors.
Nothing is what they say it is. Sign up for anything and you will find that what you thought you would get isn’t there and never was.
Sure they’ve got cheap deals on a lot of stuff but it’s cheap because IT’S CHEAP! There’s not much there, there.
I recommend any senior do what I do. When they send their cards in the mail and tell you to hurry up and send it in or you’re going to miss out on something fantastic, simply write on it to stop sending their spam to you then put it in the pre stamped envelope and send it to them.
It costs them less than the current 1st class rate but it isn’t 0 so you now have cost the pricks some money and eventually they’ll stop sending you crap in the mail.
Plus it makes you feel good. (at least it makes me feel good.)
They should be hounded out of business and investigated. I’m sure they’re doing something illegal.
[…] don’t let the bag fool you. They’re still full of shit: The 71 pages of emails show an AARP management taking orders from the White House, scripting the […]
Folks, the managing editor of AARP’s magazine is . . . JOHN STOLTENBERG, the “husband” of radical feminist “all intercourse is rape!” ANDREA DWORKIN.
A bit from Wickedpedia about this guy, who is as cold in person as a meatlocker:
>>John Stoltenberg (born 1945[1]) is an American radical feminist activist, scholar, author, and magazine editor.[2] He is the managing editor of AARP The Magazine, a bimonthly publication of the United States-based advocacy group AARP (formerly American Association of Retired Persons), a position he has held since 2004.
Stoltenberg was life partner to Andrea Dworkin for thirty-one years (eventually marrying), although he considers himself gay.[1]
Books he has written? “He has written a series of books and articles criticizing traditional concepts of manhood or maleness, such as Refusing to Be a Man: Essays on Sex and Justice, “Why I Stopped Trying to be a Real Man,” [3] and The End of Manhood: A Book for Men of Conscience.
Stoltenberg created “The Pose Workshop,” which entailed men adopting the poses that women strike in pornographic shots (intended partly for men attending Christian retreats), a version of which was broadcast on BBC television.<<
There ARE patriotic seniors' organizations you can join if you want the bennies, and without the hard left toxins (yes, hard left: why would they hire this guy of all people?).
Bill, you have called it perfectly. They are an insurance agency and nothing more. I get 3-4 pieces of mail each week imploring me to buy health insurance, life insurance, etc. Each piece goes directly into the shredder, except for the reply envelopes which I send back empty.
Obama wouldn’t have the balls to speak at an NRA convention.
[…] didn’t hear much of this unless you read blogs like Bill Jacobson’s but Wednesday President Obama invoked the support of AARP on stage and AARP didn’t like it: […]