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AARP Pivots on Benefit Cuts

cpwill

cpwill

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another sign that the dawn of reality is breaking in.



AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, is dropping its longstanding opposition to cutting Social Security benefits, a move that could rock Washington's debate over how to revamp the nation's entitlement programs.

The decision, which AARP hasn't discussed publicly, came after a wrenching debate inside the organization. In 2005, the last time Social Security was debated, AARP led the effort to kill President George W. Bush's plan for partial privatization. AARP now has concluded that change is inevitable, and it wants to be at the table to try to minimize the pain...

“If they come around and say they’re ready to do something, it will be like the Arctic icecap cracking,” said former Sen. Alan Simpson, co-chairman of a White House commission on the deficit. He has frequently assailed the group as a barrier to progress....​
 
This is a positive sign. Although I hope benefit cuts doesn't mean across-the-board cuts for current retirees. Fortunately, social security can be made solvent with a few tweaks, but I think that any benefit cuts should be in the future. What I'd like to see:

1. Automatic raising of the retirement age by 2 months per year, into the indefinite future. (We can delay this until 2015 or so, to give people nearing retirement time to plan.)
2. Means-testing social security, so that people at a certain level of income (perhaps $100K) start getting reduced SS benefits, and eventually (perhaps at $200K) stop getting them altogether.
3. Changing the way that we index starting benefits and annual increases, to more accurately reflect the true cost of living. If we used an accurate measure of inflation instead of the CPI, the annual changes would be a lot more affordable.
4. Raising or eliminating the payroll tax cap for social security.

These steps should all be politically doable, and they would more than make SS solvent. They'd even provide a nice surplus.
 
WASHINGTON – AARP CEO A. Barry Rand offered the following statement in response to inaccurate media stories on the association’s policy on Social Security:

“Let me be clear – AARP is as committed as we’ve ever been to fighting to protect Social Security for today’s seniors and strengthening it for future generations. Contrary to the misleading characterization in a recent media story, AARP has not changed its position on Social Security.


AARP Has Not Changed Its Position on Social Security - AARP.org
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This is no surprise I wonder what they got for this.



They sold us all out to Obamacare so they could make money for their insurance.



AARP has no morals or ethics and no class.
 
AARP Has Not Changed Its Position On Social Security
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Well, they better. We're spending way more than we're taking in, and we're only going to fix that by taking chunks out of the big three (Social Security, Medicare, Defense). We can either have a gradual trimming of spending now, or we can have an abrupt halt to any/all services the government provides sometime down the line.
 
BWG said:
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Aarp the most liberal of organizations was all for obamacare and taking 400 billion from medicare to pay for it...they lost alot of members over that...and they would have lost alot more over this....I am not a member of AARP...
 
OmniRocky said:
Well, they better. We're spending way more than we're taking in, and we're only going to fix that by taking chunks out of the big three (Social Security, Medicare, Defense). We can either have a gradual trimming of spending now, or we can have an abrupt halt to any/all services the government provides sometime down the line.
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Let's start with getting the hell out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and soon to be Yemen. Let's cut back on most military bases overseas. The major cuts should come in defense. We should be taking care of Americans first.
 
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