Melina Mara/THE WASHINGTON POST - AARP's Colorado state director, Morie Smile, and volunteer Terri Potente go from office to office in the Capitol giving their pitch of protecting Social Security during the debt ceiling negotiations.
But many seniors’ groups have said that the onrushing deadline, Aug. 2, does not allow enough time for an intelligent fix.
“Since we’re doing hard things, we might as well do Social Security” appears to be the prevailing logic, said Max Richtman, acting chief executive of the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare. He doesn’t agree: “It doesn’t make a lot of sense to bring in such a difficult issue.”
Which federal programs would you choose to pay?
Several seniors groups have launched advertising and lobbying campaigns designed to dissuade Congress and the president. Richtman’s group is planning to spend a million dollars on ads, he said, including some running this weekend in the D.C. media market. Another group has started a Web site, OneAway.org, that highlights the number of seniors who are just “one crisis away” from financial ruin.
And AARP has begun airing its new ad across the country, including in swing states such as Montana, Ohio, Illinois and Florida. In the ad, a man says he’s a grandfather, a retiree and a Social Security beneficiary.
“Here’s what I’m not: a pushover,” he says.
But others who have studied this subject had an alternative message for the prominent seniors’ lobby. “If I were to give unsolicited advice to AARP, it would be not to pretend that over the next 10 years these programs can be held harmless” and protected from cuts, said Brookings Institution scholar Bill Galston, a former domestic policy adviser to President Bill Clinton. “But, rather, to participate in a conversation about how they can be sustained in the long term.”
On Wednesday, AARP officials from all 50 states were walking the halls of congressional office buildings, making their case to legislators and staff one at a time.
“We really wanted to stress that we don’t want Medicare and Social Security on the table,” said Terri Potente, an AARP leader from Fruita, Colo. She was in the outer office of Rep. Jared Polis (D-Colo.), wearing a button that said “I am NOT a pushover.” She was handing a red envelope to a staffer who looked so young that it left the AARP lobbyists slightly depressed. “We’d really appreciate it if you convey that to the congressman.”
“I’ll pass this along,” the young man said.
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