The AARP finally reacts to attack on Social Security

[Number9Dream]

For weeks the AARP was silent about Trump's attacks on Social Security. Now, finally, they're furious about curtailing the phone service. IMHO, the AARP should also call for the reinstatement of the 7,000 fired Social Security employees, and re-opening the closed SS offices. I've e-mailed them to say so.

snip> “Asking tens of millions of Americans to jump through new hoops and prove their identity in the next 13 days to access the customer service they have paid for is deeply unacceptable,” AARP Vice President Nancy LeaMond warned in a letter to Leland Dudek, Social Security’s acting commissioner.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/aarp-social-security-trump-musk-telephone_n_67dc4127e4b0a81524755fab

[BoRaGard]

1. d'oh

snap out of it

[mobeau69]

2. The AARP is part of the insurance racket. The rest is bs.

[Big Blue Marble]

10. No, they are still a powerful lobby for thier members.

They speak for millions of members, And they need to speak louder. They have been
very helpful in past assaults on Social Security as when Bush Jr. came after it in
2005.

[NotHardly]

16. AARP has always been slow on the draw when it comes to RIGHTS

[LiberalArkie]

23. It takes a little time to get a focus group together and come up with what their opinion is.

[GreatGazoo]

34. " AARP is part of the insurance racket" - Yes. They were part of the Medicare Part D scam

and they mostly operate as a marketing firm for insurance.

>In 2018 and 2019, several class action lawsuits were filed against AARP regarding insurance policies. One lawsuit is over undisclosed licensing revenue that AARP earned from AARP-branded Medigap insurance policies. Another lawsuit claims that AARP acted as an insurance agent or an insurance broker, neither of which AARP is licensed to be, for AARP-branded Medigap insurance policies. In another lawsuit, the plaintiff said that AARP should not have used its status to claim the AARP-branded insurance policies were "best for seniors". All three were dismissed.<

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AARP#Class_action_lawsuits

We need a REAL lobbyist organization for seniors in this country. Is there one that we can join?

[choie]

3. If it's not the scam Medicare advantage

AARP will remain silent.

[3Hotdogs]

15. Basically, they're as useless as my left nut.

Do you see them doing anything about lowering the cost of insurance? (Yeah, I know.)

[KPN]

19. You're left nut is useless?

[WestMichRad]

20. So too is Lance Armstrong's

But the rest of Lance is useless, too, so there’s that difference!

[3Hotdogs]

32. That comment tickled my right one.

.

[hermetic]

4. Good for you

for trying! It would be nice if they did speak up for us. Somebody damn sure should.

[spooky3]

7. I'm a member. I sent them a text recently because the only info I could find on the site

simply invited members to become "activists" and contact Congress etc. I wanted to know what THEY are doing about this. No response yet.

[LoisB]

5. Did they get permission from United Healthcare to send this "strongly worded letter"?

[Sucha NastyWoman]

18. You share my doubts about them

Mainly due to their promoting United Health Care.

[LoisB]

31. I used to belong until I noticed that every other page (hyperbole but not much) of their monthly

magazine was a United Healthcare advertisement.

[unblock]

6. AARP seems to mostly be a way for marketers to target older people.

Aggressive defense of social security and Medicare is like the one thing you'd think its members are paying for, and they haven't done.

This is the one thing they should not have been reluctant latecomers to this.

[Wounded Bear]

11. Mostly, but they usually come down on the right side of senior issues...

Yeah, disappointing they weren't on top of this weeks ago, but at least they chimed in now.

[spooky3]

33. Agree about the right side, usually. I also like their publications. Almost always a couple of good articles. nt

[mucifer]

8. They are asking members to contact their congresspeople re Social Security:

https://youtube.com/shorts/_0JLGeEa2pA?si=XHCERp-JSmLTXHk8

[JoseBalow]

12. Video embedded

(1:04)

[c-rational]

9. My concern with AARP is that they play a disinguous game, asking all for aid and targettinyg all

Senators and Congressmen instead of targeting only the rethugs.

[maxrandb]

13. Thank you! Thank you!!!!

They are the "CNN of ABC".

Above all else! More important than truth! The all encompassing goal of AARP is to be "neutral" and "unbiased", just like our "press".

It's why they must ask you to contact ALL of the congress people...even those that are fighting tooth and nail to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare.

I swear, if the current "press" and organizations like AARP were around in World War II, they would ask us to contact "both" the Germans and the Jews about the Concentration Camps.

[SharonAnn]

14. It's important to be contacting those "fighting tooth and anil to protect and strengthen Social Security and Medicare"

This strengthens their resolve to continue the fight.
If they didn't hear from anybody, they might think we didn't believe it was important.

[maxrandb]

29. May be true

but the insidious part of that, is that the party that wants to destroy America is lumped-in with the party that is fighting to preserve it.

It is the Retrumplican Party that has enabled a South African nazi to rum amok and break things. Hell, they slobbered all over themselves to give him a rousing standing ovation at Donnie Dipshits joint address to Congress.

Excuse me, but why do the Democrats need to answer for that?

I wouldn't mind AARP asking folks to contact their Democratic Congresspeople, as long as they PUBLICLY STATE THAT THE REPUBLICAN PARTY IS EXCLUSIVELY to blame for this shitshow.

It would be simple and TRUTHFUL for AARP to write; "the Republican Party is actively working to destroy Social Security, so please contact your representatives."

Why am I being asked to contact my representative? Is there something going on? Is Social Security under attack? Who is attacking it? Who is threatening to shut it down, or require in-person visits to Social Security offices that are being shuttered? Who made Elon Musk a Special Government Advisor?

If AARP wants me to contact a Democrat, they should explain that I am being asked to do so to STOP the Retrumplican Shitshow from destroying Social Security!

[Demobrat]

22. My concern is that they are in bed with

United Healthcare. UHC uses AARP branding to appear customer friendly. AARP allows and profits from this. UHC murders seniors through denial of health care at a rate 3X that of other insurance companies.
I don’t trust AARP.

[Auggie]

25. +1

[Cha]

17. TY AARPQ I'm interested in what's happening Now.

TY

[Oopsie Daisy]

21. They are always deliberate and thoughtful and careful in their responses to things like this.

I don't have a problem with that. --- In the age of the "INSTANT RESPONSE" that everyone is accustomed to online or in streaming/cable or traditional media... it's natural to see this type of thoughtful response (probably reviewed by proof-readers and a legal dept) take a little bit longer than a typical kneejerk response on a wild-paced discussion forum.

Good on them!

[Lulu KC]

24. Side note re AARP

When my husband brought the mail in the other day he said, "What? Drew Barrymore is on the cover of the AARP magazine?" We laughed pretty hard about that. If you get it, you get it.

[Wiz Imp]

26. For people who still remember her in E.T. at the age of 7, it is hard to comprehend she is now 50.

[Lulu KC]

27. You get it!

And now that I think about it, 50? Oh, yes, that's when the invitations to join arrive in the mail, along with the ads for orthopedic tennis shoes.

[Wiz Imp]

30. Yep. They have age 50 as their qualifying age for membership

Every so often they'll put celebrities on the cover of their magazine specifically when they turn 50.

[raccoon]

28. Thank you!