This bill would make great strides for all of our members and their families….”
AARP said July 14, as House Committees prepared to review and amend the health care overhaul bill in the House which contains nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts.

Last week, the Senate Finance Committee passed its version of health reform, and so, it appears, that the health care battle will continue to chug along with cuts to Medicare that will affect up to 14 million seniors across the country (14,000 in Washington State) and force them off of much-needed supplemental coverage providing them with critical benefits, such as prescription drugs.

Why would a seniors’ advocacy group support such drastic cuts to Medicare? It simply does not add up.

On September 21, I sent a letter to AARP requesting an explanation for its support for health care legislation, which contains provisions to cut Medicare and Medicare Advantage.

They responded on October 1, and yet my questions remain unanswered. While they state that AARP “would gladly forgo every dime of revenue to fix the health care system,” AARP continues to run ads touting Medigap plans that will remain seniors’ only option after the proposed House legislation cuts Medicare and Medicare Advantage by $500 billion. And while they stated that “AARP is not an insurance company,” 38 percent of AARP’S annual total operating revenue came from United HealthCare, but simply 23 percent of total operating revenue came from membership dues.

And while they state that “AARP has not endorsed any of the pending bills,” their support of these proposals is clear.

When I was in law enforcement, I often sat in a room for hours with a subject, asking questions to figure out the facts. And if a question wasn’t answered, we continued to ask until we reached a sensible conclusion.

Late last week, I reached out again to clarify the questions they didn’t clearly answer, and I will continue to question them, and work with them until I find answers for the seniors in my district and across the country.

So often during the health care debate we’ve heard: “If you like it, you can keep it.” But who’s heard of this significant exception: “unless you’re a senior with a Medicare health plan”?

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office predicts that 3 million seniors will lose their Medicare health plan coverage and 3 million fewer seniors will enroll in such a plan if the current bill passed through the Ways and Means Committee, H.R. 3200, becomes law.

With a large senior constituency and an array of health insurance products to sell, there’s a lot at stake for AARP in the health care debate. In public statements, and during a personal meeting in my office in July, AARP representatives have advocated for H.R. 3200, stating: “This bill would make great strides for all of our members and their families,” yet the bill contains nearly $500 billion in Medicare cuts, including $156 billion in cuts to Medicare health plans affecting 14 million seniors, many of whom are likely AARP members. In short, they have vocally supported a proposal that would cut Medicare benefits, and I find that curious.

Why would an organization that has historically advocated for our seniors aggressively support such a bill? This week, I put that question – and many more – into writing. I am concerned about the cuts to Medicare, and that our seniors may be left without the care they need and deserve. From where I sit, there appears to be a direct conflict of interest between AARP’s advocacy for legislation that slashes the Medicare Advantage program – in which millions of seniors participate – and the sale of AARP-sponsored Medigap plans.

This week the House Republican Conference released a study about this very topic. “A review of its financial statements finds that in 2008, AARP received more than half a billion dollars in revenue from selling products like Medigap supplemental insurance policies-$652.7 million in direct “royalties and fees,” and an increase of more than 31 percent from the $497.6 million in similar revenue AARP generated in 2007.”

Has AARP lost sight of its mission? Is it now only acting to preserve its own interests? I intend to find out.

They say they are not “endorsing” it, but they sure as heck are supporting it aggressively. You and I know they are endorsing H.R. 3200, the Democrats’ healthcare plan, but are just too chicken to come out and say it. Nonetheless, their actions speak volumes.

The AARP Georgia, already catching flak from some members for its support of President Barack Obama’s health care initiative, will hold a town hall meeting from 10 a.m. to noon today at the Collar Community Center, 2625 Joe Jerkins Blvd. in Austell.

U.S. Rep. David Scott (D-Ga.) is scheduled to speak. The event is only open to AARP members who live in Scott’s district, the 13th Congressional District, and received an e-mail invitation.

“There’s a fair amount of misinformation” about reform, said William F. Brown, the advocacy campaign manager of AARP’s Southeast Region. “We want to give our members an opportunity to learn what we’re fighting for. … A lot of people just see this through a political prism.”

David Scott, the Congressman who hates you and thinks you are racist if you dare oppose the healthcare plan, is the speaker.

You must be wealthy enough to afford a computer and also have signed up to get emails from the AARP to attend.

You must be in David Scott’s district.

And they are going to talk about the “misinformation,” the AARP’s term for the inconvenient facts about the healthcare legislation.

These people should be shut down. Time to cancel your AARP membership.

At Tuesday’s town hall meeting on health insurance reform at Portsmouth High School in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, President Obama falsely claimed the AARP endorsed Obamacare. That is another Obama falsehood, one the AARP denies.

In his opening remarks Obama said, “We have the AARP on board because they know this is a good deal for our seniors.” In response to a question from a women concerned about losing her Medicare supplement if something happens to her husband, Obama said, “AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay?”:

You can watch the video here.

Well, first of all, another myth that we’ve been hearing about is this notion that somehow we’re going to be cutting your Medicare benefits. We are not. AARP would not be endorsing a bill if it was undermining Medicare, okay? So I just want seniors to be clear about this, because if you look at the polling, it turns out seniors are the ones who are most worried about health care reform. And that’s understandable, because they use a lot of care, they’ve got Medicare, and it’s already hard for a lot of people even on Medicare because of the supplements and all the other costs out of pocket that they’re still paying.

The AARP has not endorsed any health care plan that is currently being considered by Congress.

Obama’s false claim of an AARP endorsement caused the AARP issue a denial:

“While the President was correct that AARP will not endorse a health care reform bill that would reduce Medicare benefits, indications that we have endorsed any of the major health care reform bills currently under consideration in Congress are inaccurate.”

Counting his whopper that he has not said he was a “single payer supporter,” that’s two lies in one town hall meeting. What else is Obama lying about? Obama cannot expect the American people to believe anything he says about Obamacare when the record shows he is not telling the truth.

The AARP has finally come out and endorsed H.R. 3200, the Democrats’ healthcare overhaul, more commonly called “Obamacare.”

Despite its non-partisan, non-profit status, AARP has decided to go all in championing Obamacare.

It started a couple of weeks ago when the AARP held a townhall forum with Barack Obama to promote Obamacare. The carefully screened audience asked not very probing and probably pre-screened questions to assure Obamacare was framed in the most attractive veneer.

AARP’s support of Obamacare grew to holding events across the country with senior citizens, some of which didn’t turn out so well. At this AARP event we hear the AARP representatives defending H.R. 3200 and trying to combat “myths” about the plan.

From there, AARP has taken to showing up with Democrat members of Congress at Townhall events to answer seniors’ questions and preach to them the value of H.R. 3200 and Obamacare.

If that wasn’t enough, AARP has started an aggressive email campaign championing H.R. 3200 and Obama. It corresponds to this website.

The AARP website strikes down all the facts about Obamacare by calling them “myths.” The AARP’s facts go so far as to include the “public option” in H.R. 3200:

the so-called “public plan” option would seek to give American consumers another choice if they can’t find affordable, quality coverage in the private insurance market.

The corresponding email campaign says one of the myths is that the healthcare plan promotes “euthanasia”, which it objectively does — as even members of Congress say in unguarded moments. In fact, AARP’s “myth” list is very similar to other “myth” lists created by partisan Democrat groups, including Barack Obama’s own Organizing For America.

The AARP does not actually use the term “endorsement.” It can’t. It would lose its non-profit status if it did use the word “endorse”. But it has done so. The AARP claims it is just educating the public, but 100% of the education is in favor of the Democrats’ healthcare plan. There is no mention of alternate healthcare plans such as those being offered by Republicans on AARP’s website except in ancillary areas. And all the plans except H.R. 3200 are treated negatively.

The AARP has endorsed Obamacare and is actively campaigning for Obamacare. The organization is just too chicken to use the word “endorse.”

Does the AARP’s members know about the endorsement of a healthcare plan that requires seniors to get instruction every five years on assisted suicide — a fact the AARP calls a “myth”?

(Brief summary for those lacking video: Dallas AARP meeting went wrong for organizers when participants refused to sit down, shut up, and applaud Democratic talking points. Organizers then left; meeting continued.)

Complete with their quoting Madison and their insisting that AARP worked for them and not the other way around and their refusal to believe that AARP iasn’t sucking up to the administration on health care rationing. The sheer nerve of them, acting like they were real, live citizens of both the United States of America and the state of Texas.  I mean: they’re all over fifty!

Terrifying, aren’t they?

(Via AoSHQ)

The young people trying to run the Dallas AARP meeting (while almost-successfully managing to hide their baffled contempt at the way that the audience refused to take direction) certainly thought so. Up to the point where they ran away.

Moe Lane

PS: Exit question: when one of John Sweeney’s union thugs messes up and smacks around some guy in a walker without checking for cameras - how do you think that will play in Peoria? Shoot, how do you think that will play in Chicago or Detroit?

Crossposted to Moe Lane.

In fact, I do believe that there’s a threat here:

As publishers of the world’s largest magazine and the preeminent online destination for individuals 50+, we understand the desire to pursue advertising revenue. Additionally, no one is immune from our current economic crisis and we can appreciate your plea for increased ad revenue. That said, we also strongly honor the integrity of our journalists and writers/editors/content developers. AARP would never allow advertisers to dictate our editorial content based on the amount of ad space purchased, and we would be hesitant to buy ads with any media that suggested it might act otherwise.

Bolding mine, and via Instapundit.

Read More →