Dear AARP: Join? You've got to be kidding!
Dear AARP Membership Center: I am returning your membership renewal form. First of all, you are wrong. I am not a member of your organization nor will I ever be for reasons enumerated below.
First is that AARP does not support the Second Amendment, which guarantees individuals the right to arm themselves with firearms. Your organization has pumped millions of dollars into supporting candidates that are against this right. You have lobbied Congress in support of gun-control issues, funded organizations opposed to this concept, and have supported lawsuits to repeal this right. I am not opposed to you voicing your opinion but it is not mine and I sure wouldn’t want my membership fees working against one of my core beliefs.
The second problem is that you spent millions of dollars supporting the passage of legislation that has become known as Obamacare. You advocated your members and the public to contact their representatives in Congress to support this measure. Your advertising noted that this legislation would save taxpayers almost a trillion dollars. At the time I was writing letters to newspapers and member of Congress telling them that just the opposite was true — e.g., it was going to cost us a trillion dollars and it was an income redistribution scam. I was proven right on the floor of the Senate when Sen. Baucus celebrating the passage stated it was not a health-care plan but an income redistribution plan. Congress now admits that the cost will run at least $1 trillion per year. I don’t want my membership fees used to financially destroy our country.
A third problem is that most of the $30-plus million you spend per year lobbying is for Democratic causes. For instance, in 2005, your spent millions in advertising opposed to President Bush’s partial privatization of Social Security. We need to curb spending by revamping Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and welfare programs. Your organization claims to support an overhaul of these programs, but for some reason you never support Republican plans no matter how well thought out they are. I think this is a violation of your tax-free status. I cannot be a member of an organization that is a shill for a political party opposed to my core beliefs.
A fourth problem, in my opinion, is that you are selling your membership a Medicare supplemental insurance package that an independent consumer organization has ruled is inferior to most products available for the same amount of money. I don’t fault you for seeking a profit but you are victimizing your membership for your own monetary gain. Ethically this is wrong and I don’t want to be associated with an unethical organization.
Norm Johnson is a resident of Polson.