Sunday, September 30, 2007

I used to think AARP were the Good Guys

Now I'm not so sure. From Dennis Kucinich's website, a litle more on AARP's role in keeping the for-profit insurance industry alive and kicking. He dings the other Democrats on their role in it too [again].
According to Open Secrets, AARP is one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Washington. They spent over $36 million alone in 2005 lobbying Congress. In 2003 AARP was instrumental in the passage of the Medicare Part D legislation which created a windfall for the pharmaceutical companies, letting Big Pharma name the price Medicare would pay for drugs. Medicare's fiscal solvency was seriously damaged. Recently, AARP signed a sales and marketing agreement with Aetna and United Health which would bring AARP $4.4 billion over seven years. AARP also sells reverse mortgages to senior citizens, which encourages the elderly to take the equity out of their homes.

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