Saturday, May 21, 2011

HnC Vault: Old Dogs, New Tricks

Originally published August 20, 2009


AARP, a group which supposedly represents the interests of older Americans, has been one of the largest and most vocal supporters of Obamacare - which includes provisions for denying care to the old, and billions of dollars in funding reduction for Medicare.

Older Americans are expressing their anger by quitting AARP and giving up their senior discounts, rather than supporting a liberal organization that discounts seniors.

Bonus: Senior citizen's motivational poster from the Hope n' Change gift shoppe!


Update May 21, 2011

This cartoon was hauled from the vault because the ugly pact between AARP and Obamacare was back in the news this week. It had already been revealed that AARP supported Obamacare in no small part because it would eliminate many of AARP's rivals in the business of selling Medigap insurance to seniors. In fact, the elimination of competition will likely bring AARP an additional billion dollars... which isn't bad money for throwing Granny under the bus.

But even though a billion bucks is a lot of money, AARP still wanted more for its betrayal of seniors... and the Obama administration has delivered. This past week, the Health and Human Services administration gave AARP a special waiver which would free it from oversight when it raises insurance rates on the seniors who now have almost nowhere else to go for Medigap coverage.

So while AARP has traditionally been associated with images of silver-haired citizens, we think a newer and more accurate image is one of 30 pieces of silver.

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22 comments:

drjim said...

I tore my card up and sent it back to those ba$tard$ with an angry letter when they supported the Obamanation for his election.

Pete(Detroit) said...

I'm shocked, SHOCKED to find that a group dedicated to getting a 'special minority' special privileges would turn out to be headed up by a bunch of liberal wank-tards. I think, technically, I'd be eligible to join in a few years. NOT gonna happen, no way, no how.
D-Baggery of the first order.

John the Econ said...

And as I've been warning people for decades now, this is what happens when "public interest groups" become less reliant upon the support (and donations) of the public, and derive their primary revenue streams from government established monopolies. They become absolutely no different from the selfish, greedy corporations they claim to deride.

The situation is even worse when "public interest groups" are allowed to sue "in the public interest", and keep a percentage of the proceeds for themselves, as is happening with environmental litigation.

The new great threat to personal freedom isn't just evil "corporate America", but the NGO.

JustaJeepGuy said...

A decade or more ago, there was an article in Guns & Ammo about the AARP and how the organization was founded by a couple 30-year-old guys--who were socialists or practically so. The AARP was never intended to actually help retired people, it was intended to acquire money to support socialist causes. Specifically in that article, gun-grabber causes. Now we can see what happens when "retired" people get and use political power. It certainly doesn't help America!

Andrew said...

John, dead on. NGOs are like strangler fig vines--they imitate the pre-existing tree (Government), gaining benefits as they climb by assuming the same shape. NGOs attract the same sort of staff who are attracted to Government, but with even less accountability. A sell-out like AARP's is despicable, but almost inevitable.

Andrew said...

JustaJeep, the lefties thrive on divide-and-conquer. They are ramping up their campaign to portray seniors and retired's--whose taxes all their working lives have kept this nation going--as the bad guys and the greedy, undeserving 'other'. They'll try and play that against younger people who are feeling the impact of failed leftist policies.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Readers- I'm still an AARP member, but only so I can spy on 'em. Their magazine seems so safe and so innoccuous, and is ever-so-gentle when slipping the shiv to conservatives while praising all things progressive. And all sandwiched between harmless looking ads about walk-in therapy tubs and mobility devices. It's all a well-polished, well-funded con job, intended to take advantage of the most trusting (and frequently most dependent).

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

UPDATE 3:30 pm CST - As of this writing, I still haven't been raptured. Then again, I don't think I'd qualify to be in the first boarding group.

Further bulletins as warranted...

Pete(Detroit) said...

Thought the rapture was supposed to be 6pm local, everywhere - so we'd have head of it happening in NZ, Aus, Europe...

>crickets<

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Pete(Detroit)- Personally I'm waiting for the news out of Washington DC at 6 pm. If Obama isn't holy enough to make it, I guess none of us is!

Suzy said...

Just saw that Herman Cain threw his hat in the ring...REALLY happy about that....he says our original health care in this country saved his life from cancer so he's totally anti-Obamacare...plus, he should be able to throw out the race card...or at the very least, show the libs for the frauds they are. I am finally getting excited about the elections now, although I hope the other states will vote conservative since we get to vote last (yes I know, I'm bitter about that!)

Pete(Detroit) said...

Awwww, crap - I missed it.
Looks like I'm along for the Zombie Apocalypse..

John the Econ said...

Sorry progressives. Still here. But I found myself in complete agreement with French feminist groups today. So perhaps hell has frozen over.

Pete(Detroit) said...

John, care to toss out a link to explain?
Maybe I'm just a cycle or two behind, but I totally missed your reference...
OTOH, here's the CDC warning about the Zomb'pocyilapse..
http://emergency.cdc.gov/socialmedia/zombies_blog.asp
(sorry, no, don't know the html to 'code' a link..)

Doktor Paulie said...

Zombie Apocalypse? Isn't that what happened on election day in 2008?

As for AARP, if you pronounce their name properly, rhymes with "Hurl!" and "Blow chunks", it tells you all you need to know about them.

Pete(Detroit) said...

Hmmm, blogspot having "issues" again?
Today's cartoon got raptured?

John the Econ said...

Oooops. Did we loose Stilton?

As for my being in agreement with the feminists: Seems that the eurostacracy (liberal/socialist elites and their sycophants in the euro media have been coming out in support of Strauss-Kahn, saying the most amazing things. Jack Lang, a member of France's Parliament and a member of DSK's Socialist Party:

Lang called the American justice system "inhumane." "For 48 hours now, only the side of the accusation has been heard . . . and the versions given by police have been contradictory," he said. "The refusal to allow him out on bail, when no violent crime has been committed--even in America suspects are usually let go on bail if a violent crime has not been committed."

Note that Lang is not merely saying that DSK is entitled to the presumption of innocence. He flatly claims that no violent crime has been committed. That is to say, his view is that forcible sodomy and attempted forcible rape are not violent acts.

But then again, these people saw little wrong with Roman Polanski, who drugged and sodomized a 14-year-old.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/21/us-strausskahn-feminists-idUSTRE74K21S20110521

Over the years, I've had little complimentary to say about the "gender feminist" movement, which like "environmentalism" and "workers rights" had long since been totally co-oped by the socialists. But it's nice to see that finally, (unlike with Bill Clinton, btw) they are taking on one of their own.

Also, DSK is a rich socialist banker. On how many levels is that oxymoronic?

Pete(Detroit) said...

John, inre Stilt - sure HOPE not!
Thanx for the explain!

Earl said...

Stilton. Did you get raptured after all? No Sunday cartoon.

Stilton Jarlsberg said...

@Readers- Sorry about the delay with Sunday's cartoon. I wasn't raptured, captured, or in any other way taken by surprise...except to find out that Blogger had decided not to update last night at midnight.

Anyway, the new/old cartoon is up...and I'll be giving Blogger the hairy eyeball to make sure tomorrow's cartoon posts on time.

Pete(Detroit) said...

Hooray, no Stilted damage!
On to today!

Anonymous said...

My insurance agent, who is old enough to remember, told me that AARP was begun by a small group of insurance pimps, basically to develop a pool of senior citizens to whom they could sell overpriced life insurance. They got filthy rich off of it, and the scam continues to this day.

The leadership gradually turned very liberal over the decades, but didn't start out that way.