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Taking a page from Alan Simpson's playbook, the House GOP has decided to take on the AARP. Long the bete noir of Simpson, who has grappled with them for decades in his unending quest to end Social Security and Medicare as we know them, the AARP now has to contend with a Republican-controlled House. They are pushing an investigationof any "deal" the AARP might have had made to give its support to the Affordable Care Act. That's just congressional hearings, though.
The latest GOP attack on the organization is to challenge its tax exempt status.
WASHINGTON—AARP lobbied for the new health care law and now it stands to profit, Republican lawmakers charged Wednesday as they called for the IRS to investigate whether the powerful interest group representing older Americans should be stripped of its federal tax exemption....
"Based on the available evidence, substantial questions remain about whether AARP should maintain its tax-exempt status," said the report, released by Reps. Wally Herger of California, Charles Boustany of Louisiana and Dave Reichert of Washington.
AARP said profit had nothing to do with its support for President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, which expands coverage to nearly all Americans, a longstanding goal of the organization.
"We are very disappointed in the report and reject its conclusions," said AARP President Lee Hammond. "AARP is no more an insurance company than we are an online travel company ... the royalties we receive allow us to keep member dues low."
....Scoffing at the report, Rep. Sander Levin of Michigan, the senior Ways and Means Democrat, called it a "witch hunt" to punish supporters of Obama's law.
A witch hunt that could end up biting the GOP in the butt, given the huge membership of the AARP—which increases daily as baby boomers retire. They got some seniors in 2012 by screaming (falsely) that health care reform took away their Medicare. They'll lose them if the AARP engages and does what it does best: mobilize its members and make clear what the GOP is doing—trying to bring down a powerful lobby standing in the way of dismantling Social Security and Medicare.
The attacks on AARP are like the attacks on Planned Parenthood, and the successful take down of ACORN; attempts to cripple organizations that effectively mobilize key elements of the Democratic base. It's politics and nothing else