Social Security Battle: AARP Plans Secret 'Salon' With Social Security Opponents

WASHINGTON -- The senior citizens lobby AARP on Monday will kick off a national Social Security and Medicare "listening tour" called "You’ve Earned a Say and We’re Listening." Through "town halls, community conversations, bus tours and other events," the influential organization promises to offer members a chance to speak out on the simmering debate over the future of Social Security and Medicare.

The outreach is part of the group's campaign to restore trust it lost during last year's spending debate, when a top AARP official told the Wall Street Journal the organization was open to cuts to the entitlement programs. The lobbyist's comments came as Congress focused on deliberations of the Simpson-Bowles commission, a group of 18 lawmakers and other officials who failed to agree on a "grand bargain" that would have trimmed $4 trillion off the deficit in 10 years.

But while AARP staffers fan out across the country to hear from members, the group's CEO, Barry Rand, will be listening to a different cast of characters.

An AARP invitation to a secret "Relaxed and Robust Evening of 'Salon Style' Conversation" to be held at a Capitol Hill home on March 27, obtained by The Huffington Post, indicates that the organization is still very much interested in a "grand-bargain" style deal that puts Social Security and Medicare cuts on the table.

"AARP is not pursuing any closed door deals or grand bargains," said an AARP spokeswoman. "Our main focus is hearing from our members, and all Americans, what they think about ways to strengthen Social Security and Medicare. That's precisely why we're launching 'You've Earned a Say.' We are interested in hearing from all sides and having civil discourse on these issues."

The list of invitees to the salon event includes a gallery of powerful Washington establishment figures who are on record favoring cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The only firm opponent of Social Security or Medicare benefit cuts on the list, the Economic Policy Institute's Larry Mishel, said he wasn't planning to go and wasn't sure why he was listed as a featured guest. (AARP also responded to the request for comment by inviting HuffPost to attend the off-the-record gathering, an offer we plan to accept.)

Other listed invitees included business leaders and deficit hawks who have long argued for the cuts, including Tom Donohue of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, John Engler of the Business Roundtable group for corporate CEOs, and David Walker, a noted deficit alarmist and former head of the Government Accountability Office.

Last year, advocates of Social Security and Medicare had reason for concern as the Simpson-Bowles Commission members debated. One co-chairman, former Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyo.), is a caustic critic of entitlement programs, and complained during the debate that the country had become "a milk cow with 310 million tits!" His co-chairman, Democrat Erskine Bowles, is a director of Morgan Stanley and General Motors.

While the commission deliberated, AARP created a firestorm when its board voted to drop its opposition to Social Security cuts.

"The ship was sailing. I wanted to be at the wheel when that happens," AARP policy chief John Rother said, according to the Wall Street Journal.

AARP quickly backtracked, with its officials accusing Rother of speaking out of turn and insisting that Social Security and Medicare reform should not be cut in a bargain to reduce the overall deficit. Rother left the organiztion in the fall, with some colleagues telling the Journal that the controversy contributed.

Rother had made similar comments in 2010. "We're prepared to be quite supportive of a real engagement on the issue," he told the Journal. He added that those rejecting any benefit cuts were taking the wrong strategy. "I know all these people personally and they'll say we have to be hard line now to influence the debate," he said. "I kind of take it with a grain of salt, these emphatic statements." AARP quickly followed up by back-tracking on those comments, too.

The private salons, however, appear to vindicate Rother. This year's salon is the third focused on entitlement, and AARP has held at least eight such affairs over the past three years, the AARP spokeswoman said, ranging from 2011's "Preserving the American Dream," to 2010's "The Road Ahead: Reducing Deficits and Meaningful Fiscal Reform," to 2009's “A Salon Conversation about the State of Play in Health Care Reform." Previous guests have included Andy Stern, former head of the Service Employees International Union; the American Enterprise Institute's Andrew Biggs; Bush-era Medicare chief Gail Wilensky; and Maya MacGuineas of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.

Last year's AARP salon took place on April 13, two months before Rother spoke to the Journal. Four of those listed on the invitation were members of Simpson-Bowles, a curious group to call together if AARP didn't want entitlements to be part of the conversation.

The invite list for 2012 suggests that AARP is still very much open to cutting Social Security and Medicare, as a majority of this year's expected "thought leaders" have thoughts that involve slashing Social Security.

Among those invited or expected to attend, according to the invite, are EPI's Mishel; former Rep. Harold E. Ford Jr. (D-Tenn.), now a Merrill Lynch executive; former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-Okla.), one of Newt Gingrich's few high-level backers; former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.), now a top unregistered lobbyist; former Michigan Gov. Engler (R), now head of the Business Roundtable; Washington Post columnist and blogger Ezra Klein; Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget president Maya MacGuineas; Brookings Institution's Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform director Mark McClellan; former Comptroller General Walker; and U.S. Chamber president Donohue.

(Also invited is William A. Niskanen of the Cato Institute, who passed away last year.)

People who have worked closely with AARP over the years say that its willingness to cut benefits as part of a grand deal reflects a common tension in Washington advocacy groups with large memberships. And AARP has one of the biggest, claiming more than 40 million members ages 50 and older. While the overwhelming majority of AARP members are strongly against benefit cuts, the group's team in Washington nevertheless wants to be an influential part of the conversation, and they appear to believe that an openness to cuts is the way to appear serious.

"They want to be at the table when a deal is cut," said one person who declined to be named because he continues to work closely with AARP. The irony is that while AARP's legislative team may be convinced that a deal is inevitable, a grand bargain actively opposed by AARP would be effectively impossible for Congress to pass.

The AARP invitation reads: "As Congress and the administration continue to debate the critical economic choices confronting the nation, Barry Rand is convening a group of senior-level principals for an informal salon-style conversation to discuss the importance of strengthening and preserving Social Security."

Washington Post's Klein said he had not been invited to this year's salon and had no intention of going. He said he had briefly attended a previous AARP event, but couldn't recall the theme. Former union leader Stern was a Simpson-Bowles commissioner who ultimately voted against the final plan. He followed up with his own deficit reduction plan that included a lower corporate tax rate, lower payments to Social Security recipients that changed the way benefits are calcutated, and means-testing for Medicare. Stern and Klein later discussed the Stern plan in a Washington Post item.

A spokeswoman for Stern said that he did not plan to attend. A spokeswoman for J.C. Watts told HuffPost the former congressman was unaware of the event and hadn't been invited.

The guest list for a similar discussion in April 2011 included a number of the same people, as well as Ted Koppel; Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.); Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.); Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell (R); Maryland Gov. Martin O’Malley (D); former Rep. Mel Watt (D-N.C.); Sen. John McCain's former advisor and president of the American Action Forum Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin; American Federation of Teachers union president Randi Weingarten; Wall Street Journal economics editor David Wessel; Committee For Economic Development senior vice president Joe Minarik; Brookings Institute's Isabel Sawhill and Alice Rivlin; and president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies Ralph Everett.

The 2012 salon is scheduled to take place at the Capitol Hill home of Robert Raben, a lobbyist with The Raben Group. It is being organized by former Raben Group staffer Licy Do Canto, now of The Do Canto Group.

This year's invitation:

Hope you are well. On behalf of AARP, I am writing to extend an invitation to you to attend a high-level discussion with AARP CEO A. Barry Rand and other national thought leaders on Strengthening Social Security: Facing up to the Challenge.

It's scheduled for March 27th at 7pm in Washington, DC. Attached is the formal invitation.

As Congress and the Administration continue to debate the critical economic choices confronting the nation, Barry Rand is convening a group of senior-level principals for an informal salon-style conversation to discuss the importance of strengthening and preserving Social Security.

Together with 15 thought leaders from the Administration, Congress, business, labor, the not-for-profit communities and the media (off the record), AARP looks forward to a robust conversation that will drill down to the core issues at stake, and focus on the challenges confronting Social Security and retirement security of our aging society.

Participants, who have been invited and/or are expected to attend, include Maya MacGuineas, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; John Engler, Business Roundtable; William A. Niskanen, CATO Institute; Ezra Klein, Washington Post; Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute; Mark McClellan, Engelberg Center for Health Care Reform; Tom Daschle, Bipartisan Policy Center; Andy Stern, Georgetown University; David Walker, Comeback America Foundation; Tom Donahue, US Chamber of Commerce; former Congressmen Harold E. Ford, Jr, and JC Watts, among a host of other thought leaders.

Invitations also have been extended to the White House, House and Senate leadership, and several other Members of Congress as well as other organizations.

We hope that you will consider joining the group and participating in this conversation. I am happy to provide you with more substance and logistics.

Sincerely,

Licy

* * * * *

Last year's invitation:

On behalf of AARP, I am writing to extend an invitation to you to attend the first of a series of high-level discussions in 2011 with AARP CEO A. Barry Rand and other national thought leaders on the importance of fiscal responsibility and reform and its impact on retirement security.

It's scheduled for Wednesday, April 13th at 7pm in Washington, DC. Attached is the formal invitation.

As Congress and the Administration continue to debate the critical economic choices and challenges confronting the nation, and consider various reforms to reduce the national debt and lower the federal budget deficit, Barry Rand is convening a group of senior-level principals for an informal salon-style conversation to discuss the short and long-term prospects for the federal budget and its effect on the American public and retirement security.

Together with 15 thought leaders from the Administration, Hill, business, labor, the not-for-profit communities and the media (off the record), AARP looks forward to dropping the formalities and prepackaged positions, and drilling down to the core issues at stake in the debate, and discussing the prospects for getting America’s fiscal house in order and improving retirement security.

Participants, who have been invited and/or are expected to attend, include US Senators Mark Warner, Saxby Chambliss, Kent Conrad and Tom Coburn; Douglas J. Holtz-Eakin, American Action Forum; Randi Weingarten, American Federation of Teachers; David Wessel, Wall Street Journal; Bob McDonnell, Gov. Virginia; Martin O’Malley, Gov. Maryland; John Engler, Business Roundtable; Maya MacGuineas, Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget; William A. Niskanen, CATO Institute; Joseph J. Minarik, Committee For Economic Development; Isabel V. Sawhill, Brookings; Ezra Klein, Washington Post; Ted Koppel, BBC; Lawrence Mishel, Economic Policy Institute Alice Rivlin, Brookings, Ralph Everett, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies; US Representatives Paul Ryan, Mel Watt, and former Congressman Harold E. Ford, Jr, among a host of other thought leaders.

Invitations also have been extended to the White House, House and Senate leadership, and a number of other Members of Congress as well as other organizations.

We hope that you will consider joining the group and participating in this conversation. I am happy to provide you with more substance and logistics.

Licy

UPDATE: 5:30 p.m. -- The progressive blog FireDogLake is organizing a campaign to persuade AARP to cancel the event: "AARP is working behind the scenes to build support for benefit cuts while masquerading about as an ardent defender of the safety net to its massive, dues-paying membership. This is outrageous, and AARP should immediately call off the event and disavow this shameful attempt to throw its weight behind benefit cuts."

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to correct the name of the Brookings Institution.

Comments

[longeye67]

10:49 AM on 04/02/2012

Note: Dear old folks, I've been a member of AARP for fifteen years. My conclusion about the organization is that it's a buyers club, a marketing operation, and their deals are not that great. Don't think for a minute they represent you or look out for your best interests. They sell out to the highest bidder. The head of the organization is in it for the money, so is his staff. Do not believe what they tell you in their slick publications with celebrities on the cover. Remember, they backed a deal with the drug companies and sold the old-timers down the river on the Medicare Prescription Drug Program that only benefitted the drug companies, not you. They use you to generate income, period.

[Mted69]

02:15 PM on 03/27/2012

AARP is going to do it to us again, work out a deal to help them self and to hell with the majority of members. It seems to me that the only person that truly understands our concerns is VT Sen. Bernie Sanders.

[rueroyal2]

10:29 PM on 06/01/2012

Bernie the communist party member.

[rueroyal2]

05:34 PM on 03/24/2012

Our Politicians Have Spent The Entire Social Security Trust Fund $2.3 Trillion Of Cash Surplus
now IOUs. Furthermore, seniors/elderly Social Security cash dollars rather than adding to the debt... has actually been used to allow spending beyond all reason... leading to the point we find ourselves today.
simply treating it as some sort of "cash cow" to be milked for all it's worth...
It's past time to quit transferring billions from the retirees/baby boomers (and others), live within our means and start charging some other group(s) for the spending excesses. like billions to countries that threaten to kill us.

[rueroyal2]

05:15 PM on 03/24/2012

I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!! Just because they borrowed the money, doesn’t make my benefits some kind of charity or handout!!
Congressional benefits —- free healthcare, outrageous retirement packages, 67 paid holidays, three weeks paid vacation, unlimited paid sick days, now that’s welfare, and they have the nerve to call my social security retirement entitlements?Entitlement my butt, I paid cash for my social security insurance!!!!

Q: Which Political Party took Social Security from the Independent "Trust Fund" and put it into the General fund so that Congress could spend it?
A: It was Lyndon Johnson and the democratically controlled House and Senat
　 Q: Which Political Party eliminated the income tax deduction for Social Security (FICA) withholding?
A: The Democratic Party.
　 Q: Which Political Party started taxing Social Security annuities?
A: The Democratic Party, with Al Gore casting the "tie-breaking" deciding vote as President of the Senate, while he was Vice President of the US
　 Q: Which Political Party decided to start giving annuity payments to immigrants?
A: That's right! Jimmy Carter and the Democratic Party. Immigrants moved into this country, and at age 65, began to receive Social Security payments! The Democratic Party gave these payments to them, even though they never paid a dime into
　 Then, after violating the original contract (FICA), the Democrats turn around and tell you that the Republicans want to take your Social Security away!
And the worst part about it is uninformed citizens believe it!

[blohrd3]

08:56 PM on 03/31/2012

Some of what you say is true, The rest is Drudge Report and Glen Beck claptrap. Which party believes as shibboleth that Social Security is a Ponzi scheme?. Who created the term "Entitlement" program to describe Medicare and So. Security as if each are free giveaways. Which party believes that smaller government means killing both programs. You must think we are fools.

[MarcDel]

04:01 PM on 04/21/2012

I couldn't agree more. Go with the Ryan budget and die young. Now that's a bug cut

[infopro20]

03:35 PM on 03/24/2012

What kind of reporting is it that refers to an action by the main focus of the article over and over again, yet doesn't tell us what the action specifically is? There are enough word games going on. I want to know what specific benefits cuts the author is referring to.

If the benefit cut is that people who have very high incomes - and who don't really need Medicare - don't get the same level of Medicare benefits as people who really need them, then I say, great! I don't care that they paid in. Isn't this what most of us want to happen?

[loosehead2]

12:27 PM on 03/24/2012

Every member of AARP should drop their membership today. This is worse than Susan G. Komen for the Cure having an anti-woman president. The president should be fired, but more importantly, changes should be made so someone who is against seniors will never run the program again.

[urout48]

08:57 PM on 03/23/2012

SS is not an entitlement. I have deductions from ever pay. Don't try that baloney.

[Gnarly Erik]

05:31 PM on 03/20/2012

I dropped AARP years ago when they endorsed GW Bush. What business does an advocacy group for seniors have doing politics using my money like that - and without even asking members? Since then I have learned just how slimey and duplicitous they actually are.

They are sneaky, smelly wolves in sheep's clothing. Avoid them!

[NeverForget History]

04:29 PM on 03/19/2012

About the time I received a bill for $700 plus dollars for auto insurance for 1/2 year in 1997, promoting Hartford as a "very low priced insurance provider from members", and learned that I could have gotten same or better coverage for 1/3 of the price through Geico and half price for home and auto, I knew then exactly what AARP was. A corporate middleman lobbying for the robber baron insurance industry, and getting a nice slice of the reverse Robin Hood robber baron pie themselves.

[Penelope Pitstop]

04:06 PM on 03/19/2012

this why my grandma dropped out of AARP

[dfranz]

01:47 PM on 03/19/2012

Were AARP actually an advocacy group for seniors they would be looking for ways to strengthen SS and increase the benefit not standing behind those who would destroy it for political ideology.

AARP is no better than the Komen Foundation when it comes to their brand as far as I am concerned. Once burned, twice learned I say. An AARP membership is merely a chance to be bombarded by insurance advertizements.

[Sandee McHale Delano]

03:31 PM on 03/19/2012

You are right. I just called and told the rep that if they continue with secret bs meetings they will lose members, including 2 in this household. Social Security is not in trouble other than the trust fund being robbed to use elsewhere (like wars, oil subsidies and tax cuts) and can be fixed very easily by taking the cap off and maybe increasing contributions. I would gladly pay more toward this. It is especially important to me now because the criminal bankers and Wall Street thieves have lost half of my 401K and I am running out of time to build it back up. I contribute 15% every paycheck. I am really tired of having to play Russian Roulette with my retirement and if SS is privatized, it will be doing this as well. What really irks me is the secretism and lies. Just be OPEN.

[Chris Paleczka]

01:25 PM on 03/19/2012

Hey AARP, quit sending me your crap in the mail.

1. you're wasting trees
2. i'm 29 years old, are you running out of old folks to rob?

[2lib4oh]

10:48 AM on 03/19/2012

AARP is not a non-profit organization.So why do we expect them to act on our behalf?
They are just lobbyist looking our for themselves.
They want to cuts to Medicare so that we will have to fill in the gaps with their insurance for the retired.
Everyone should cancel their membership in protest and start a real advocacy organization for the retired.

[Sandee McHale Delano]

03:32 PM on 03/19/2012

That will happen if they keep this up.

[PatiencePie]

10:35 AM on 03/19/2012

Without Social Security, millions of seniors in America would be living in one room with a hot plate. Even if we've been saving all our lives, what happens when we're 85, 90, or 95? What are we supposed to do? Move in with our Gen-X kids? They don't want us cluttering up their McMansions with our pill bottles and walkers. The problem in Washington is that all the people moaning about "What should we do about Social Security?" are friggin' millionaires.

[Sandee McHale Delano]

03:34 PM on 03/19/2012

Yep. It is not brain surgery to fix SS and Medicare, but people like Paul Ryan are yelling the sky is falling about this and the deficit. Fear mongering to control the masses. I am done with being controlled. Time for some action.

[NeverForget History]

04:53 PM on 03/19/2012

So much for practiced communism or socialism being the exact opposite of practiced capitalism. It never was. Marx never envisioned or promoted that at all. Marx wasn't necessarily wrong in what he related in “Das Kapital“, but people need to keep a proper perspective on what Marx actually meant. As he grew more physically ill, his mental faculties were going as well. If he had remained the voice of sound economic hypothesis, he never would have gone over the utopian fantasy edge as he did. What happened under Stalin also happened under Hitler, Mao, and Franco, which is exactly the same as what has been happening here as early as LBJ. Vietnam was all about oil off the coast of SE Asia, not McCarthy's lies screeching "communist under every bush". Pun intended.

Those historical facts must be known when assessing exactly the full intent of what AARP is contradictorily doing. AARP execs and board don’t care about the general public. If everyone dropped their membership and told their top level management why, they would go out of the Orwellian Newspeak business. They would have no choice in the matter. No or too little demand. No need for supply. So sayeth Adam Smith’s theory of practiced capitalism as Smith intended it to be applied in a genuine free market.

[eric steven]

12:09 PM on 04/23/2012

"Vietnam was all about oil off the coast of SE Asia"

aww, what about the golden triangle heroin and arms sales, poppy?

[deke4]

06:57 AM on 03/19/2012

AARP is not now nor has ever been for helping the elderly. They are no more honorable than any other insurance company. They may use backdoor methods that help insurance companies and also use backdoor methods that oppose helping the potential insuree. I would like to see the breakdown by party of donations AARP makes to help candidates for office. I would suspect they donate more to the party that serves their bottom line interests than the party that supports the insuree.