If you are of a certain age you are no doubt aware of the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP), but perhaps less aware of their self-aggrandizing political platform.
The AARP holds a virtual monopoly on its influence on retirees, with nary a disgruntled word ever being spoken against them. At least that the mainstream media will let you in on. As one who is in their target market I wanted to dig a little deeper, beyond the “exercise 30 minutes a day” or “ cut down on fats and sugars” sermon to see where they sit, if anywhere, on the social issues of the day.
With a mantra of helping retirees guide themselves into the future, the AARP has shifted left in recent times, unbeknownst to most of its 35 million members. According to Terry Scanlon, of the Capital Research Center, “Most people join AARP for their hotel and motel discounts. Most people have no idea about their political agenda being as liberal as it is.”
But you say, hold on a second, the AARP is a bipartisan non-profit group, so how can it maintain its tax-free status if it’s clearly political and only serving half its members? Like any well-run business entity, AARP has split itself into various organizations over the years, allowing it to quadrant off its non-profit side in order to keep its tax-free status, while still allowing it to shift its political agenda decidedly to the left.
The AARP has benefited from receiving tens of millions of dollars from the federal government over the years. What exactly are they getting and doing with it? AARP receives millions per year from the federal government in subsidies for its work to provide education to seniors on issues related to health care, financial planning, and retirement. The AARP is technically a nonpartisan advocacy group and has lobbied legislators of both major parties (wink wink/nod nod). The association has grants with the Department of Labor for some $50 million for a senior employment program that costs roughly $7,000 per head to operate. Okay. No big deal.
Perhaps most nefarious of all is the organization’s ties to Obamacare and the windfall that was made from it. To begin, when Obamacare became law, it cut $716 billion from Medicare in order to pay for the $1.9 billion expansion of coverage to, yes you guessed it, low-income Americans.
Sure, low-income folks need access to affordable health care, but so do seniors, who actually accrue 90% of the overall use and cost of health care in America. At the time, the senate reported that those same Medicare cuts would give AARP a windfall of $1 billion in profits to its insurance business, and preserve another $1.8 billion that AARP had generated from its business interests. That’s a swing of $2.8 billion over ten years, all thanks to Obamacare.
The sleepy-eyed agency that helps you understand reverse mortgages has now also helped you raise your blood pressure.
So as usual, all we have to do is follow the money to see what’s really going on. According to Marylin Moon, former director of AARP’s Public Policy Institute, “A lot of people there are trying to do well, but they’re ending up becoming very dependent on Medigap royalty sources of income.”
The AARP has made the seismic shift to the left at really no expense since only 20% of total revenue comes from membership dues. Financing aside, there are a number of political issues that the organization is involved with that might not sit well with all its members.
Regionalism, or the concept of the government eliminating disparity in wealth, is one of them. In their own words, “Policymakers should create communities that allow people of varying income levels to live there. Wealthier communities, in particular, should build more subsidized housing for people with low and moderate incomes.” What a great idea. Perhaps they should start in the Bay area and build tenement housing in Nancy Pelosi’s backyard.
As you know that will never happen. Such tenements would only be built in your neighborhood. The AARP website proposes that “freedom from discrimination and a strong social safety net are essential.” No one would disagree with that, but coming at the expense of seniors is often difficult to digest.
In case you didn’t realize it, AARP also has expertise in climate change and the environment.
Again, their website states that climate change is largely responsible for what they see as a rise in infectious diseases throughout the world. Look, if you’re worried about malaria, don’t visit the West Nile, or if Monkeypox keeps you up at night, follow the CDC’s suggestion of men keeping down the current number of gay lovers they have. Not my words… It doesn’t stop there.
The marching orders of the AARP are right out of a left wing playbook. Pick the issue and they will fall in line. You want another example? Okay. How about mail-in-voting. How caring that AARP should argue that voting from home should be defacto, even if you’re not afraid to leave your home for fear of something. And of course the ubiquitous mask wearing and forced testing are de rigueur for the once mainstream non-profit.
The list goes on, but you get the idea. So think long and hard before you re-up your membership and kick in another 12 bucks to a group that probably lobbies for issues that you loathe.
