Dear AARP:
I have received your letters regarding congressional moves
to cut Medicare and turn it into a voucher program, and to fail to preserve
Social Security at its present levels. As AARP members and as citizens who are
63 and 64 years old, my wife and I are just as dismayed and alarmed at these
developments as you are.
Your letters appeal for money to assist your campaign to
fight these outrages. But in order to secure our financial support I am going
to require some more information from you.
First, your letters provide no details on what your campaign
consists of. There is a vague reference to “push our elected leaders to do the
right thing and protect our promised benefits.” Please explain how AARP intends
to do that, and how additional money will be used in that effort: hire more
lobbyists, buy TV ads, offer political contributions, or what?
Second, your letters appear to skirt reference to the
elephant in the room. You say a “new federal budget introduced in the House of
Representatives.” You refer to “powerful forces on Capitol Hill.” Let’s be
frank. Those who introduced this inhumane and immoral budget are the
Republicans. The “powerful forces” you refer to, who wish to take life-saving
medical care and a bare subsistence pension away from vulnerable seniors are
the Republicans.
I know you want to try to be a nonpartisan organization, but
these are the political realties we face. Your current letter includes
petitions for me to sign to my senators and representative. I have signed and
included them in the envelope, but these are unnecessary. Dianne Feinstein and
Kamala Harris in the Senate and Scott Peters in the House are Democrats who
strongly support Medicare and Social Security. They will do the right thing
without any prodding. On the other hand, verbal appeals to Republicans will
fall on deaf ears. They are the ones committed to cutting taxes and slashing
Medicare and Social Security. They are the “powerful forces” who introduced the
very legislation you rightly decry. No amount of jawboning is going to change
their misguided devotion to their lamentable ideology.
No, if you want to protect Medicare, Medicaid and Social
Security your campaign needs to focus on alerting the American people about who
is working to reduce or eliminate these crucial programs. You will not
safeguard these vital benefits without defeating Republicans and electing solid
Democratic majorities to both Houses of Congress. If that is the intent of your
campaign then please let me know as soon as possible so I can rush my
contribution to assist you in your efforts. If it is not, then stop wasting my time and your
efforts in a quixotic crusade
Do you really want to save Medicare and Social Security, or
do you just want money to protect your jobs while paying lip service to
standing up for us? Then let me know your campaign will be focused on electing
our supporters and defeating those who threaten our very lives and my generous
support will be on its way.
Steve Natoli,
12122 Royal Birkdale Row Unit 306, San Diego, CA 92128
(559)
303-4671
