The Nation's Pulse
AARP on Life Support
Taxpayers subsidized the retirement lobby's campaign to defeat Social Security reform.
(Page 2 of 2)
Another problem is that SCSEP doesn’t seem to train seniors so much as place them in make-work government jobs that are in effect welfare. “SCSEP offers few benefits aside from income support,” concludes CBO.
Indeed, it is questionable how seniors can expect gainful employment by performing part-time, unskilled labor that pays only minimum wage. Amazingly, the Labor Department does not perform independent audits to measure how effectively grantees place seniors in meaningful jobs. Grantees grade themselves. Not surprisingly, AARP consistently boasts a high placement rate.
The time is long overdue to cut off federal subsidies to AARP, worth, at last count, $1.6 billion. It’s grating enough that AARP gets away with blocking Social Security reform through misinformation. But don’t let it do so while it’s feeding at the public trough.
John Carlisle is the Director of Policy at the National Legal and Policy Center, a nonprofit foundation dedicated to promoting ethics in public life.
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