AARP strongly objects to fast-tracking Social Security changes. The organization that sends you seventeen magazines per month about retirement cruises has decided speed is bad when it comes to fixing the system that's been mathematically f*cked since 1983.
Congress wants to move quickly on Social Security overhaul legislation. AARP says slow down. This is the same group that took four decades to notice the trust fund depletion date while busy selling supplemental insurance policies to people who thought AARP membership came with actual political power.
The advocacy group represents 38 million members who pay dues to receive discounts at Denny's and the false impression that someone in Washington gives a shit about their input on entitlement reform. Now they're mad because legislators might pass something without the proper amount of performative hand-wringing.
Fast-tracking means fewer committee hearings. Fewer opportunities for AARP lobbyists to explain why means-testing or raising the retirement age constitutes a war crime against Boomers who voted for every single politician who underfunded this program. The horror of efficiency.
Here's what actually happens: Congress debates for six months instead of eighteen months, passes the same bill anyway, and your retirement age becomes 74 while AARP sends you a survey asking if you felt heard during the process.
The technical analysis on Social Security reform is simple. Draw a line from 1935 to now. Notice how it goes up. Draw a line from now to 2035. Notice how it goes down. Every indicator says you're working until you die.
AARP's strategic response to legislative urgency is to object strongly, which in Washington translates to we'd prefer you pretend to listen to us first before ignoring us.
Photo by Brett Jordan on Unsplash
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