Social Security – What reformers are up against

From the National Legal and Policy Center’s special report:

"AARP Gets Millions in Funding from Federal Grants AARP stirs considerable anger among conservatives for its aggressive advocacy of liberal causes. Of course, as a private nonprofit organization it has the right to take any stand it chooses on a public policy issue. No one disputes its First
Amendment rights. However, the fact that AARP pursues its political agenda using federal dollars especially angers taxpayers, and not just those who have problems with its politics. The AARP 2004 annual report, which has the most recently available information, showed that of the $878 million in revenue AARP received that year $83 million came from the federal government through a variety of grants. Thus, when AARP spent at least $10 million torpedoing Social Security reform in 2005, more than 10 percent of its $800 million budget came from the U.S. taxpayer."