Just got a call from AARP!

[Navy1960]

I just got a call from AARP asking me to call me Senator and congressman and tell them to support the legislation in the healthcare bill. So I decided to first call AARP and tell them that I pay AARP to be a member and not to ASSUME that their views are my views and to make such statements in public or use my name as a member to advocate the positions of the Head of AARP who is clearly in kissing the Presidents backside. I did however, do as they instructed and called Sen. Kyl's office and Sen. McCain's office and tell them EXACTLY what I thought of this bill and AARP's using it's members as political cannon fodder to prop up a position that not all it's members support.

 

[strollingbones]

hmm did you object this much when they endorsed bush's medicare reforms? i wont join aarp due to their quick adoptions of political stances.

 

[Navy1960]

hmm did you object this much when they endorsed bush's medicare reforms? i wont join aarp due to their quick adoptions of political stances.

I don't think any group like AARP should automatically assume what the stances of their members are bones. As for Medicare Reforms, at the time, I felt the same as I do now that providing for people is not solving the issue.

 

[strollingbones]

since i dont belong to it...i dont understand the structure of it...it is for profit...isnt it? not a co op where members vote?

 

[Modbert]

Galesburg Radio 14...WGIL

 

[Navy1960]

since i dont belong to it...i dont understand the structure of it...it is for profit...isnt it? not a co op where members vote?

Frankly bones AARP is a group that offers many different services to it's members including, insurance auto, health, etc. and discounted services etc.

About AARP

Founded in 1958, AARP is a nonprofit, nonpartisan membership organization that helps people 50 and over improve the quality of their lives.

AARP has grown to 40 million members and has offices in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands....

AARP (The American Association of Retired Persons) is a not-for-profit association with 33 million members, a membership second only to the Catholic Church in the United States. This gives its publication Modern Maturity a colossal circulation. Fortune polls found it to be the most influential lobby on Capitol Hill; the group spent $35 million lobbying in 1995. Although it sells health insurance, among other things, the organization is considered a nonprofit group and receives many tax breaks and federal grants ($86 million in 1997). Its economic influence goes far beyond its membership revenues, administrative allowances, and commissions on product offerings, which include various types of insurance and financial products, and its pharmacy service, which controls ten percent of the mail-order market. Investigative journalist Dale Van Atta estimated "that the total revenue for AARP and its partners in 1994 was $5.6 billion."

AARP -- Company History

Hopfully that helps bones, AARP has turned into a organization lately that supports every cause that it's board supports and few of it's member's do, however they assume by the number of members that all of them have some uniform support for the way in which their board acts.

 

[mary1224]

I get these AARP calls once a week on my cell phone and there seems to be nothing I can do to stop them. I don't care at this point what their cause of the week is--I just want them to stay away from my cell phone!

 

[AllieBaba]

AARP is essentially a lobbyist group, who takes members' money to promote their political agenda. In return, they provide some perks such as insurance, travel discounts, and a little maglet on different issues which affect seniors.

 

[Old Rocks]

This AARP member is in complete agreement with their actions.

 

[Baruch Menachem]

The AARP markets itself t members as a discount club, which is the way a lot of them use it.

It markets itself in Washington as a lobbying PAC with lots of slavering members who will vote in lockstep with the board.

This causes huge problems for them sometimes, as when congress believes them and gets burned by its very angry elderly constituents.

My parents joined for the discounts. They never got any information on how to elect the board, nor were they at all interested. The AARP magazine went right to the recycling direct from the mailbox.

The AARP probably has a bad rep in DC, except when it is a useful tool to be used and discarded. They have cash, but no influence beyond that, because they can't deliver. They have cried wolf twice too often.

 

[johnrocks]

The AARP markets itself t members as a discount club, which is the way a lot of them use it.

It markets itself in Washington as a lobbying PAC with lots of slavering members who will vote in lockstep with the board.

This causes huge problems for them sometimes, as when congress believes them and gets burned by its very angry elderly constituents.

My parents joined for the discounts. They never got any information on how to elect the board, nor were they at all interested. The AARP magazine went right to the recycling direct from the mailbox.

The AARP probably has a bad rep in DC, except when it is a useful tool to be used and discarded. They have cash, but no influence beyond that, because they can't deliver. They have cried wolf twice too often.

I agree except the influence part, imho, they are one of the strongest special interests groups there is, the AARP could shout JUMP and many Congressmen would ask , how high.

ETA. I just found this link when I Googled top lobbyists and this site lists the AARP #1.
http://www.toptenlinks.com/cat.php/Society:Government:Politics:Lobbying+Groups