Social Security Advocates Deplore AARP Decision To Put
Social Security On Chopping Block

By Brian Beutler
Talking Points Memo
June 17, 2011

http://www.readersupportednews.org/off-site-news-section/81-81/6306-aarp-undermines-social-security-fight

An article in Friday's Wall Street Journal has Social
Security advocates angry and scratching their heads. It
suggests that AARP -- one of the most powerful interest
groups in Washington -- has done an about face on the
question of cutting retirement benefits for seniors as
part of a grand bipartisan bargain on shoring up the
programs finances.

The change in posture, agreed to by AARP's board, has
already sent shock waves through the Beltway's large
and influential entitlement reform community. It's
prompted calls from lawmakers and centrist and
conservative groups for Congress to seize the
initiative and agree to cut benefits. It's mobilized
Social Security's strongest advocates against AARP, and
it's prompted AARP to initiate a partial walk back -- a
statement calling the story "misleading, but
reiterating that the group could support Social
Security reforms if they don't cause future retirees
too much pain.

"It has also been a long held position that any changes
would be phased in slowly, over time, and would not
affect any current or near term beneficiaries," says
AARP CEO A. Barry Rand -- in other words, the group
could support some cuts, so long as they only impact
people many years away from retirement.

But conversations with insiders suggest the Journal
story, while mostly on point, underplays a key part of
the story. What AARP decided doesn't necessarily
constitute a change in policy, but rather a major
strategic decision to announce their acceptance of
those cuts now, while the legislative zeitgeist is
about "fiscal responsibility", instead of later.

"It's terrible timing," says Roger Hickey, Co-Director
of the Campaign for America's Future, and one of DC's
veteran Social Security warriors.

In a big way, what AARP has decided doesn't surprise
Social Security's progressive defenders. The two
constituencies have had a complicated, sometimes icy
relationship. But they have allied recently behind the
idea that Social Security should not be dealt with in
the current fight over budget deficits. AARP has
reopened the rift by making this strategic shift -- to
blink as a signal to tax-averse conservatives that
they'll play ball on a stand-alone Social Security deal
if revenues are on the table.

The Journal article quotes AARP's top policy guy, John
Rother, supporting the decision. "The ship was sailing.
I wanted to be at the wheel when that happens," he
said.

But multiple sources note that Rother's long wanted
this outcome, and had aligned himself with an
influential faction in the White House that supports a
deal on Social Security that includes benefit cuts and
revenue increases -- to make the program more
sustainable and to signal to U.S. creditors that the
country can manage its budget.

One of those sources is Eric Kingson, Co-Chair of the
Strengthen Social Security Campaign, and Co-Director of
the Social Security Works coalition.

"I think AARP is moving in front of its constituency, I
think they're going to get burned," he said "The damage
has been done, the message has been delivered.... Even
if you think you eventually give ground on Social
Security, this is terrible timing -- a terrible
mistake."

Top officials at AARP disagree.

Quoth Rother: "[S]ome of our members will no doubt be
upset by any such effort, but I believe most would
welcome a balanced and fair proposal that could
strengthen the program for future generations and
possibly even improve it for current vulnerable
beneficiaries."

Here's how the Journal describes the reforms AARP is
willing to accept:

    The group will accept cuts, but won't champion
    them, and it is particularly leery of certain
    concepts such as eliminating benefits for wealthier
    recipients.

    It wants tax increases to fill most of the
    program's financial hole, and it insists that a
    deal must be crafted apart from broader deficit-
    reduction negotiations.

That's very much in line with the stated view of senior
administration officials who have been pushing Social
Security reforms for much of President Obama's first
term.

"The ideal thing is to get more realists to use their
enthusiasm for deficit reduction -- their professed
enthusiasm for deficit reduction -- to lock them into
the reality that something on revenues has to be part
of the solution, and to make sure that nothing's done
on entitlements that's damaging to our interests
without making sure that revenues are on the table in a
meaningful way," noted one senior Treasury official at
a background roundtable with reporters several weeks
ago.

At the moment, Social Security is off the table in
Congressional negotiations, led by Vice President Joe
Biden, to raise the national debt limit, and cut
federal spending. That's because Republicans continue
to oppose any new revenues for the program. But there
are signs of a last minute push to foist Social
Security into the mix -- or at least take it on while
the going is good.

At a Capitol press briefing Thursday, retiring Sen. Kay
Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX) introduced a new plan to cut
benefits by raising the retirement age and paring back
cost of living adjustments.

"If we all do it together then there's not going to be
the cheap shot stuff like savaging Paul Ryan because he
made an attempt on Medicare," she said. "Someone has to
write the first draft, always pity the first draft
writer because then everyone jumps in and makes it look
like it wasn't a good draft but it was, starting is
good."
------------------------

See also:
AARP slammed for not fighting Social Security cuts
http://tinyurl.com/3ujhpfh

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