American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) is the currently the country’s eminent organization for people of the 50 and beyond. It attends to their various needs and concerns through systematic information and education support service coupled with efficient community activities and programs. All these are further provided by colligated network of present local chapters within districts and pulled off by volunteers throughout the country. AARP also offers its members a wide range of extra welfare services and benefits, including their own Modern Maturity magazine and the monthly Bulletin.
further defines American Association of Retired Persons, (AARP) as a nonprofit, nonpartisan national organization dedicated to "enriching the experience of aging"; membership is open to people age 50 or older. Founded in 1958 by Andrus as American Association of Retired Persons, AARP now has over 30 million members, enabling it to act as a powerful advocate for older Americans on public policy issues such as social security and health care. AARP also distributes information on topics of interest to its members, sponsors community-service programs, and provides various services to its members. It publishes Modern Maturity and My Generation magazines and a members' bulletin. 1
The organization is a tax-exempt group which garners federal monetary resource, at about $86 million annually, from direct grants for such programs as tax counseling for the elderly to providing jobs for seniors under the "Senior Environmental Employment Program." Simpson rightfully raised the question over the use of a non-profit status for a group which makes millions selling its members medicine, insurance, and other products.
AARP is widely acknowledged for the defense, advancement and pursuing the interests of aging citizens through a plurality of initiatives. These included lobbying efforts at both the state and national governmental level, an activity permitted by its status which provides it with an exemption from the imposition of Federal income tax. Its AARP Services (ASI) division is concerned with the negotiation and offers reduced rates for its members at various tourist attractions, automobile rental companies, including motel and hotel chains.
ASI also provides programs for reduced-cost medical and automobile insurance, opportunities for managing retirement and scam alerts about predatory lending and refinancing.
One of the more public AARP's public stances was that which influenced the U.S. Congress' support for the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act, which authorized the creation of Medicare Part D, in 2003 and resistance to changes in Social Security in 2005.
AARP also offer within most states special testing for the re-issuance of licenses to those over 70 years old. Some people have limited licences that restrict driving to specific areas and distances. Good insurance coverage is imperative and can be obtained through the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP). AARP also provides a course, "55 Alive/Mature Driving," that is helpful and in some cases will qualify one for lower insurance rates. 2 This is in accordance with the AARP mission of providing the best for the elderly. While there may lie a horde of other existing organizations which share the same aspirations with the AARP, no discussion of the interest groups influencing Social Security policy could possibly be complete without a description of the most powerful lobbying group of all.
It warrants a separate chapter, for various reasons. On the one hand, it is un-fair to the AARP to include it in the previous chapter, under the title "A Cottage Industry of Demagogues." On the other hand, it is unfair to imply that any of the groups covered in that chapter wield more than a small fraction of the AARP's influence. 3
The irony is that most AARP members in the 50 states have only a vague notion of AARP’s political agenda which tilts decidedly to the left and most AARPites join for the aggressively hawked benefits. It’s hard to resist a sales pitch that touts AARP’s buying power based on 33 million members, until Senator ’s hearings focused on the fact that not only did AARP not beat competitive insurance plans but made a tidy profit, of hundreds of millions on all the products they offer their members as ‘the lowest available price’ thanks to an apparent purchasing power due its massive membership. 4
The organization was established and grounded on free enterprise, less government, less tax for the elders and neither takes nor seeks federal grant money. The AARP has been called "an increasingly influential lobbying group for the elderly...” but these Taxpayers --and especially senior citizens -- must realize that the AARP does not represent the best interest of people but serves as a mouthpiece for those forces pushing for expanded government. Nonprofit organizations with their own political agenda of liberalism which receive federal funds should not be subsidized by taxpayers for lobbying. President said it so well: "To compel a man to furnish funds for the propagation of ideas he disbelieves and abhors, is sinful and tyrannical." It is time an aroused electorate put a stop to this abuse. 5
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