The organization known as the American Association of Retired Persons no longer has anything to do with helping retired people. Rather, it is about using its access to the elderly to make money – a boat load of money – and using that money to pay its executives exorbitant salaries while lobbying for left wing political causes such as ObamaCare.
According to a study produced after Congress asked the IRS to review the organization’s tax exempt status, AARP operates on a for-profit basis but still enjoys the tax-exempt status of a non-profit enterprise.
AARP’s revenue in 2010 was $1.7 billion and it held assets valued at $1.565 billion. And trust me, it didn’t come from membership dues. Membership dues are kept low because that is not where the lion’s share of the organization’s revenue comes from.
AARP makes its money endorsing products aimed at the elderly and by allowing its name to be used – for royalties, of course – by a private insurance firm that markets supplemental Medicare insurance. This cozy arrangement with the insurance company earned AARP $670 million just in 2010. So how can AARP continue to operate as a non-profit when they operate the same way as for profit business who have to pay taxes?
AARP’s most effective political strategy is using scare tactics to convince seniors that Congress is trying to take away their Medicare benefits, even though the organization’s executives know better. What is widely known in the halls of Congress, as well as in the halls of AARP’s corporate headquarters, is that even the most aggressive Medicare reform recommendations apply to no one over the age of 55. But AARP highly paid executives in league with liberal politicians who operate with the same disregard for the truth, stubbornly cling to their selfish goal of “getting it while they can.”
ObamaCare would not have passed without the strong support of seniors who were egged on by the purposefully deceitful scare tactics of AARP. Telling seniors that they must support ObamaCare or see their Medicare benefits reduced, AARP was able to generate a tidal wave of grassroots support from seniors nationwide.
The truth, well known to AARP’s highly paid executives and their liberal counterparts in Congress, is that ObamaCare not only fails to protect Medicare benefits, it cuts benefits by $716 billion to help finance other parts of Obama’s socialist health care plan – like abortions on demand, sterilization on demand, subsidized health care for illegal aliens, etc. etc. etc. The impact of these cuts will be detrimental to senior’s access to care. Medicare Trustees 2012 report concluded that these cuts will cause an estimated 15% of hospitals, skilled nursing homes and home health agencies to operate at a loss by 2019, at a 25% loss by 2030 and 40% by 2050. No business can afford to operate at a loss for long. These facilities will either have to close or cut services to seniors.
I don’t believe that seniors, had they heard the truth rather than propaganda and scare tactics spread by liberals and AARP, would have supported left wing policies that will leave the country and their children bankrupt.
Read “Why I Refuse To Join the AARP” by David L. Goetsch at this link.
According to “Behind the Veil: The AARP America Doesn’t Know“, AARP threw Seniors under the bus for profit when they supported ObamaCare. AARP stands to make windfall profits that exceeds over $1 billion over the next ten years. If you really want to know what AARP is all about, read the report at this link and then pass the information to the seniors in your family.
Under the guise of representing older Americans, AARP has lobbyed successfully for and assisted in getting laws passed to line their own pockets.
