In response to AARP’s narrow questionnaire and possible leanings toward supporting benefit cuts, Firedoglake has teamed up with CREDO Action, National Organization for Women, Social Security Works and other organizations to launch our own version of the AARP’s “You’ve Earned a Say” survey, slightly modified to be more precise and more inclusive of all views on the future of Social Security and Medicare.

Firedoglake collected over 9,000 responses this weekend, and we’re running ads and circulating the survey to hear from as many people as possible. Once we’ve all collected our responses, our coalition will publish the results in full– but until then, I wanted to offer a peek at some of the results we’ve received thus far.

If you haven’t taken our survey on the future of Social Security and Medicare benefits, you may do so here.

Question #4 on AARP’s Survey reads:

When it comes to securing the future of Medicare and Social Security, which of the following do you expect:
A: More funding will be needed to maintain the same benefits
B: Benefits will be reduced
C: Either A or B
D: None of the above

This question is one of the most skewed on AARP’s survey, offering no opportunities for the individual to expect or hope for benefit increases– only a status quo described as hard to maintain, or worse. The question also lumps together Social Security and Medicare – two different programs with different needs. These are not good baseline options for defending Social Security and Medicare, and its hard to imagine this question producing an honest response from participants.

To get a better idea of what people really think about the future of Social Security and Medicare, we broke it in two: one on Social Security, one on Medicare. We also asked what folks wanted on this issue from AARP specifically, as well as added an option for people to express their desire for expanded benefits and cost controls – not just the same benefits, less benefits or higher taxes.

Here’s what came back:

I was unable to locate any published results of AARP’s “You’ve Earned a Say” online questionnaire, but it’s clear from our sample that regardless of membership in the organization, folks aren’t content with the status quo and they certainly don’t want less. In fact, they want the nation’s largest, wealthiest elderly advocate to go out there and demand more on their behalf.

Our survey is still wide open, so click here to fill it out if you haven’t already. We’ll continue to monitor AARP’s “You’ve Earned A Say” tour and will keep you updated on results from our coalition survey.

I previously wrote about how the survey accompanying AARP’s “You’ve Earned a Say” listening tour does not provide members with an adequate opportunity to voice their opinions on the future of their Social Security and Medicare benefits.

If you’re an AARP member, it’s obvious why this is a problem, but if you’re not a member, consider the fact that AARP is the nation’s largest elderly advocate with over 40 million members. AARP’s insurance arm rakes in billions each year and they do quite well off kickbacks from business partners. AARP routinely meets with Washington elite, many of whom support benefit cuts, and spent $15 million on lobbying in 2011 alone – a particularly ‘light’ year for them if you look at their history.

Therefore, which side of the line AARP chooses to be on when benefit cuts return to the table is something that will affect all Americans – not just AARP members. If they drop their opposition, it will provide cover and an air of legitimacy to the notion that benefit cuts are inevitable and necessary, and further promote the fallacy that Social Security is on the brink of collapse. Look no further than AARP’s resignation to benefit cuts last year around the time of Bowles-Simpson, which had it not been for significant public outrage, could have been disastrous for seniors and retirees.

So, is AARP only providing this survey to appear interested in the desires of their membership? Or are they truly looking for their members to voice their opinions?

In an attempt to answer this question, we took AARP’s survey and slightly modified it to include important response options that were left out of questions about the future of Social Security and Medicare. We included options for people who might not think we need major or minor “changes” (read: cuts) to Social Security and Medicare – but instead may want AARP to push for expanding benefits, or to oppose cuts of any kind.

We’re working with CREDO, the National Organization for Women (NOW) and others; contacting over 50,000 AARP members with our own version of the “You’ve Earned a Say” survey – and we’re running Facebook and Google ads targeted at AARP members to get as many people to take the survey as possible. When it comes time for AARP to choose sides, we will compare our results.

This is only the first step in a broader campaign to follow AARP closely and potentially expose new attempts to get the organization’s weight behind benefit cuts and ultimately unnecessary hardship for our seniors and retirees. But for now, please take a moment to fill out our version of the “You’ve Earned a Say” survey, regardless of whether or not you’re an AARP member. While this is by no means a scientific poll, your response will be helpful in providing a contrast between what Americans want and what AARP might be trying to do.

This evening, well-known Social Security opponents will meet with AARP CEO Barry Rand for a private, off-the-record ‘salon’ known as the “E Street Exchange.”

The seniors’ advocacy group held similar strategy sessions last year just two months before announcing they would drop their opposition to benefit cuts like raising the retirement age.

This begs the question: will AARP flex its massive wealth and influence in the debate over the future of Social Security on behalf of their 40 million plus dues-paying members and the majority of Americans who strongly oppose benefit cuts and overwhelmingly support expanding benefits? Or will they do it at the behest of a few wealthy scions of industry who have made repeated attempts to dismantle the social safety net to the benefit of their own bottom lines?

Unfortunately, the facts seem to stack up in favor of the latter, and AARP has a history of trying to get the American public to believe that cuts are inevitable (see: “the ship was sailing”) when in fact they are not inevitable.

Whether or not you’re an AARP member or retired, you should be deeply concerned about these events, because what AARP eventually decides to do will set the tone for debate on Social Security and Medicare going forward. We can’t wait for the outcome of the E Street Exchange to act – we need to make our voices heard right now, and demand AARP end the back-room strategy sessions to prepare the weasel words and misleading data points to advance benefit cuts.

AARP should listen to what their members and the majority of Americans actually want when it comes to the social safety net: expanded benefits, not cuts.

Call AARP today to demand they listen to the majority of Americans on the future of Social Security and Medicare and end strategy sessions to cut benefits.

Contact AARP: Tel: (888) 687-2277 | Email: member@aarp.org
Click here for a script to use when calling.

If you can’t call today, please donate $10 or more to run advertisements to AARP members.

Through online surveys and listening tours, AARP purports to give its membership a chance to speak their minds on how they would like the organization to protect the social safety net. With over 40 million members, it’s likely that AARP members agree with the majority of Americans and support expanding access to benefits.

But the reality is that AARP has done pathetically little to engage its members in a real conversation on their hopes for the future of the social safety net – while going out of their way to privately coddle individuals who have made the pursuit of benefit cuts their life’s work. As I previously wrote, AARP’s survey gives little opportunity to anyone who would like to suggest that maybe the social safety net is not in extreme peril.

I can’t promise that we’ll be able to stop the E Street Exchange and other meetings like it, but it’s still imperative that you call today and speak out against any and all efforts to advocate for cuts to critical programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.

As we’ve seen over the past few years, our elite political classes will stop at nothing to dismantle the social safety net for their own gain. This attempt to put AARP’s influence on the side of benefit cuts is disgraceful, and we won’t stop until as many people know about it as possible.

Call AARP today to demand they listen to the majority of Americans on the future of Social Security and Medicare, and end strategy sessions to cut benefits.

Thank you in advance for making your voice heard to AARP today. With your help, we hope to once again keep them on the side of seniors – not Wall Street.

On both sides of the debate over the social safety net, we often see the term ‘strengthening Social Security’ tossed around.

This phrase means different things to different people. To the majority of Americans who support expanding benefits, this phrase likely means taking a strong position against any cuts or changes that negatively impact their benefits.

But to understand what it means to Wall Street, the US Chamber of Commerce and the Business Roundtable is a very different story. To them, it means to advocate for a reduction in benefits, for raising the retirement age, and for hacking away at perhaps the most important social program in our country’s history.

As the nation’s largest seniors’ advocacy group, AARP purportedly strives to work in the best interests of its members. But has AARP actually stopped to ask their members what position they should take on the social safety net? To help answer this question, look at the brief survey provided to members as a precursor to their “You’ve Earned a Say and We’re Listening” tour; a national town hall series to “make sure your voice is heard in any conversation about the future of Medicare and Social Security.”

The survey begins:

1. Which of these statements do you think describes Social Security the best?

A: Social Security is okay as it is
B: It needs minor changes
C: It needs major changes
D: It is in a state of crisis

Question 4:

4. When it comes to securing the future of Medicare and Social Security, which of the following do you expect:

A: More funding will be needed to maintain the same benefits
B: Benefits will be reduced
C: Either A or B
D: None of the above

If the majority of Americans oppose cuts, and instead support the expansion of benefits, where is that option in AARP’s survey? Or are the majority of members really expected to ‘make their voices heard’ in the catch-all comment box at the very end? One would think this popular position might be important enough to be added as an option on their survey, yet it has been completely left out.

While AARP members are left with limited options to communicate their wishes to their organization which rakes in billions off insurance payments and millions more siphoning its members off to choice businesses, the CEO holds court with some of the most outspoken and influential enemies of the social safety net – groups and individuals who have gone on record supporting raising the retirement age or switching to Chained CPI – in a forum in which they can voice their opinions without restraint.

Can AARP really provide an adequate service to its members without actually giving them a chance to say what it is they want for the future of the social safety net? We think that’s a very important question to ask, and if AARP won’t ask its members, we will.

We’re beginning to run ads on Facebook in an attempt to find out what AARP members really think about Social Security, but we need your support to get them up and running in front of as many people as possible.

Click here to donate $10 or more to help us run ads targeted to AARP members asking them how they really feel about the future of the social safety net.

The Huffington Post reports that AARP CEO Barry Rand is inviting outspoken safety net opponents to an “off-the-record, salon style” meeting on March 27th on the future of social security, called The E Street Exchange.

The guest list includes US Chamber of Commerce Tom Donohue, Merrill Lynch Executive Harold Ford Jr., former MI Gov. John Engler from the Business Rountable for corporate CEO’s and others who have gone on record repeatedly in favor of benefit cuts to critical programs like Social Security and Medicare.

Once again, 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. Firedoglake is demanding AARP CEO Barry Rand cancel the E Street Exchange and end back-room strategy sessions with prominent social safety net opponents.

Tell AARP CEO Barry Rand to cancel the E Street Exchange event and abandon his efforts to throw AARP’s support behind benefit cuts.

Click here to add your name: http://action.firedoglake.com/page/s/aarp-rand

Last summer, our campaign of over 32,000 activists was successful in getting AARP to backtrack after their board voted to drop its opposition to social safety net cuts.

But while AARP is offering a pathetic 6-question survey and ‘town hall series’ called “You Earned A Say and We’re Listening” as a gesture towards “listening” to their 40 million+ membership, it seems they are most interested in adopting the same kind of off-the-record, unaccountable negotiations over benefit cuts that have characterized numerous attempts to dismantle the social safety net over the past few years — from the Catfood Commission to the Super Committee.

Laughably, while Rand’s E Street Exchange is holding “relaxed and robust” discussions on “Strengthening Social Security: Facing up to the Challenge” with Washington’s 1%, AARP’s survey assures its members: “…AARP is taking the debate about the future of these programs out from behind closed doors in Washington, so you can make your voice heard.”

Clearly, just from looking at the invitation to their salon style talk, nothing could be further from the truth.

Tell AARP CEO Barry Rand to cancel the E Street Exchange event and abandon his efforts to throw AARP’s support behind benefit cuts.

The E Street Exchange is scheduled to take place in Washington, DC on March 27th, and we’re going to do everything we can to stop this silent assault on the social safety net. I hope you will join us in once again holding AARP accountable for its actions.