Posted on Wednesday 16 November 2005
Ever cringe when you see a once successful American company crippled to bankruptcy due in part to agreeing to infeasible union demands for benefits? Meet the union that shows every sign of doing this to America as a whole.
But I won’t be joining, because AARP has become America’s most dangerous lobby. If left unchecked, its agenda will plunder our children and grandchildren. Massive outlays for the elderly threaten huge tax increases and other government spending. Both may weaken the economy and the social fabric. No thanks.
Anyone who’s watched the steel and auto industries can visualize AARP’s America. In those industries, companies and unions unrealistically agreed to overly generous pensions and retiree health benefits that, as the number of retirees multiplied, overburdened the companies. Now past promises collide with present economic realities. Workers and retirees suffer. Wages and jobs are cut; so are pensions and retiree health benefits. On a much larger scale, that may be America’s fate.
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But delay is AARP’s program. As to the future, its stock answer is: Fix health care. A less costly and more effective health care system would control Medicare and Medicaid spending. True. But several decades of loud calls for a more efficient and effective health care system haven’t yet created one. Meanwhile, the question remains: Who pays? AARP expects younger taxpayers to bear most of the burden.
Reminds me of the reality that “special interest” groups are only bad when they’re not your special interest group.
Tags: aarp, government-spending, News and Politics, special-interests
I read this article too. This country is completely run by senior citizens. If you’ll be dead in a couple of years why worry about the future? I’m starting my own special interest group called Twenty-Somethings Tired of Geezers Sucking The Country Dry (TSTGSTCD). The motto: “I’m young, I vote… someone kiss my butt.”
One problem is that seniors aren’t dying in a couple of years! They can use expensive health care to prolong their lives for decades. I’ll join your TSTGSTCD, but it seems like a rather high hurdle to convince people that the protocol should be (1) assess fiscal realities and (2) decide on benefits within these constraints instead of the current protocol which is (1) confer benefits and (2) screw fiscal reality…70% income tax rates for the grandchildren on fine with me.
The last presidential election saw “young” voters participate about 35% level, up nearly 10 percent from previous elections. Your participation rate has to be about 75% or more to offset the senior edge. Tell all your friends to do a voter registration check with each other and encourage your friends to do the same. Good luck.