Are you still supporting AARP?

If so, why?  They have caused far more damage than any benefit to your personal pocketbook could overcome.  Remember, they supported the prescription drug plan.  Have your prescriptions gone down? No, I didn't think so. Mine have gone up a lot.
Legal Insurrection has a lot to say about the AARP and Consumers Union.

When Will AARP, Consumers Union and AMA Be Held To Account for Obamacare?

The Daily Caller (h/t Instapundit) has an interesting post today on the push back by Tea Party supporters against corporations -- particularly in the pharmaceutical industry -- which cooperated and cut deals with the Obama administration to help pass Obamacare. The Washington Post had a similar article just after the mid-term elections, focused not so much on Tea Parties but how the Republican establishment was taking note.

But what about AARP, Consumers Union, and the AMA, each of which provided invaluable cover and support to the administration, as documented in my prior posts:
* AARP Rides To Obamacare's Rescue, Again
* Alphabet Soup of Health Care Delusions
* AARP Shills for Kennedy
* AARP Prepares To Sell Out Seniors
* Consumer Reports' Specious Stand On Health Care Reform
* Consumer Reports' Massive Fail
* AARP and Consumers Union Should Put Their Money Where Their Pro-Tax Mouths Are

In November 2009, as the House prepared it's Saturday night vote on Obamacare, I noted the role of the AMA and AARP:
Don't have much time this morning to comment further, but note the irony that today the jobless rate hit a 25-year high at 10.2%, and tomorrow night Democrats in the House of Representatives are planning to push through a health care restructuring bill that is guaranteed to kill more jobs. The Democrats refuse to wait until Monday for a vote and insist on a special session Saturday night....

Oh, and AMA and AARP - you people have no idea of the damage you are doing by supporting this last minute rush towards madness. Or maybe you do, but you don't care.

It is time to hold all institutions -- not just for-profit corporations -- which helped pass Obamacare to account for what they did. AARP, Consumers Union, and the AMA would be a good start.

Update 11-28-2010: For the record, I let my Consumer Reports subscription, which I had for many years, expire last year, and I throw out all the membership cards and info. from AARP which show up in my mailbox. As my readers know, I'm not a big fan of organized boycotts, but that doesn't mean I have to give them my money.

GOP Congressman Questions AARP Endorsement

We discussed this at the meeting of the Rockport 912 Texans for Freedom last night. This is an article from CNS News. It seems to me there was a conflict of interest when they stumped for the Medicare prescription plan and also on this healthcare bill.

AARP, the American Association of Retired Persons, which endorsed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) version of the health-care reform bill Thursday, is drawing fire from a member of Congress who questions the motives of the nation’s largest senior citizens’ lobbying group.

Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) told CNSNews.com that it is possible AARP could benefit financially from the passage of the bill, which includes $500 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicare Advantage. According to Reichert, if the cuts to the programs result in reduced benefits, more seniors will have to purchase “Medigap” coverage, highly regulated private insurance that fills in holes in Medicare coverage.

Read it all here.

Are You Being Duped by AARP?

When AARP came out for the perscription drug plan we wrote them and dropped our membership. At that time we realized what they were, granted we had some doubts before that. But, like many others we realized we got a few perks, not many, but a few hotel bills were a small amount less, so we had kept it.

AARP-- Where The Customer is Always Wrong

An American Spectator blog article by Philip Klein,

Last week, many of you saw the video of a Dallas AARP town hall meeting on health care that AARP officials ended early after the audience raised too many objections. The woman leading the meeting, for instance, tried to shut up audience members who said they disagreed with her when she made assumptions about what she thought they would agree with her on. At one point, a man summed it up by asking, “Do you guys work for us, or do we work for you?”

If you haven't already written them off as liberal, go read the whole thing and watch the video.

Mark Tapscott on Obamacare and the AARP

Mark Tapscott: Obamacare could kill AARP an editorial in the Washington Examiner.

It couldn't happen to a better organization.There are not enough perks to justify supporting such a leftist board. I realize many of the members have no idea, but really....
go read the whole thing not just this excerpt. And then send it to all your friends who still believe in the AARP.

Marketing operations don't get any slicker than the one behind AARP. Their invitation to join arrived in my mail box even before I turned 50. I joined for one year, but never renewed because I knew the truth about this famous group.

That truth is this: Millions join AARP and in return receive a host of useful services and resources. But their money and influence are hijacked to support causes that are absolutely inimical to their best interests.

The hijacking is the work of AARP's Washington staff, which is an integral part of the tireless liberal lobbying machine that runs 24/7 in the nation's capital pushing to protect and expand current government entitlements and to create costly new ones.

via email from Tibby

Obama and the AARP

Bookworm Room is written by an original thinker. She does some linking but she also does a lot of clear-eyed, right thinking. She is a professional and knows how to break things down to get to the reality of the subject. Here she takes on the AARP and Obamacare. I had planned to post this much earlier and then I heard Rush talking about it, and almost decided not to link. But I've gone back and read it again. It is just to0 important not to post about it.
Obama and the AARP — partners in crime

A consensus seems to be growing that the ObamaCare bill does not bode well for seniors. Aside from the mandatory “counseling” for all seniors, counseling that’s only worth doing if it’s meant to steer seniors away from obtaining treatment, simple common sense dictates that the health care cannot work without rationing — and rationing will always affect first those who use the product most. In this case, seniors are not merely the health care system’s biggest users, they’re also the ones the government sees as most expendable. This being the case, why then is the AARP, which ostensibly exists to advance the interests of seniors all over America, enthusiastically supporting ObamaCare? The answer might lie in AARP’s management.

The AARP is an interesting organization, because membership is automatic, provided that you pay your dues. This means that most of its constituents pay no attention to what it’s doing (they just like the benefits). Few of them, I’m sure, realize that AARP’s management is extremely far Left.
How do I know this about the management? Well, aside from the AARP’s bizarrely enthusiastic embrace of a legislative policy that will radically decrease its membership by depriving large segments of decent medical care, one of the AARP’s major players is John Stoltenberg. It is Stoltenberg who manages the magazine that’s sent to every senior in America.

As always, read the whole thing.