AARP: Don't mess with Social Security

[pbartch]

This is a LONG article. Please read it and forward it to your friends -- dems and repubs. Link is at the bottom
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AARP: Don't mess with Social Security

Sun Jan 30, 9:40 AM ET

By Jill Zuckman Washington Bureau
Pittsburgh retiree Jack Heim is eagerly looking forward to Congress' break for Presidents' Day next month, when both of Pennsylvania's Republican senators, Arlen Specter and Rick Santorum, will be home from Washington.

Heim has a blunt warning for Specter, Santorum and any other lawmaker who will listen: Hands off Social Security. "We can give them our message, which is, Don't destroy the greatest program in the world," said Heim, 84.

Heim, who retired years ago from his family's saw company, is one of thousands of volunteers who have been mobilized by the AARP against President Bush's Social Security reform plan, even before it is fully formed.

Bush is set to provide more details of his plan in his State of the Union address to be delivered Wednesday.

Heim's message is especially potent in a state with one of the highest proportions of elderly voters. But AARP, the nation's largest senior citizen lobby with 35 million members, is playing a central role nationwide in the debate over Social Security. The group has already launched a multimillion dollar campaign to defeat Bush's plan using newspaper ads, phone banks, pollsters and an army of activists.

AARP is planning an all-out assault when lawmakers return home to their states for the Presidents' Day recess. Already, activists have contacted members of Congress more than 130,000 times since December, and the group's Web site is encouraging senior citizens to e-mail their congressional representatives and urge them to oppose Bush's plan for private retirement accounts funded by a portion of an individual's payroll taxes.

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"It's going to be very difficult to get Social Security without them," said Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.). "They're very well-organized, and we all know they turn out to vote."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/chitribts/20050130/ts_chicagotrib/aarpdontmesswithsocialsecurity

[katinmn]

1. I just posted some of it in GD:Politics. It's a good one!