AARP Bulletin - December 2011

Your AARP ; Where We Stand

By A. Barry Rand, CEO

Bulletin™

SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLICATIONS & MEDIA SALES

Catherine Ventura-Merkel

GROUP EDITOR IN CHIEF & SR. VICE PRESIDENT Hugh Delehanty VICE PRESIDENT, PUBLICATION OPERATIONS Traci L. Lucien

It’s Time for Serious Talk

Recently an AARP member in Pitts-
field, Mass., sent me
this letter: “Social Se-
curity will be my main
source of income when
I retire, if I ever get to. I
have a 401(k) also, but it
has been hit hard, and I
Over the last several months, we have re-
ceived thousands of similar emails and let-
ters from AARP members across the country
expressing their frustration, anger and fear
over the prospect of Congress cutting Social
Security and Medicare benefits in order to re-
duce the federal budget defi-
cit. We have also collected
more than 6. 5 million peti-
tions urging members of
Congress not to make
these cuts.

Congress is still wrestling with a deficit reduction plan, but one thing is clear: Older Americans, many of whom live on less than $20,000 a year, cannot afford to have these lifeline programs cut. To do so would create an even greater hardship for the one out of every seven seniors who now lives in poverty and would push millions of older Americans and their families out of the middle class and into poverty.

We have also heard from our members and people 50-plus that we as a nation need to strengthen and improve these programs, not treat them as a piggy bank for deficit reduction. Our members are extremely frustrated with the inability of Congress to address these concerns.

We have a better idea. We need a national
discussion to develop the tools and strategy
for strengthening health care and retirement
security and for restoring prosperity to the
middle class.

As one AARP member in Dallas put it, “We
need solutions now; 20 years ago would have
been better, but we can’t wait any longer. We’re
long overdue.”
Many members agree with him that Congress
should be able to reduce the deficit without
jeopardizing the health care and retirement
security system that citizens depend on, that
they have worked for and paid into all their
lives. Lawmakers could begin by cutting
wasteful spending—including in our health
care system—attacking fraud and eliminating
tax loopholes. Their failure to date has made
our members and people 50-plus even more
cynical about the ability of government to
come to grips with these issues.

They want a national conversation that will
lead to answers and action. They are anxious
to hear solutions that address the problems
faced by real people. They want to hear ideas
that would lead to more jobs,
bring efficiency,
economy and fair-
ness to health care
and provide greater
financial security.
Next month, AARP
will kick off a serious
national conversa-
tion focused on find-
ing ways to strengthen
health care and retire-
ment security and re-
store prosperity to the
middle class. We want to hear your ideas. We
want to hear what you think about the options
already being discussed, especially what they
would mean to you and your family. We all
need to understand the impact these options
would have both today and tomorrow.

As I have said many times before: Our goal is to ensure that current and future generations receive the benefits they’ve earned over a lifetime. With your ideas, your input and your involvement, we can achieve this goal. ;

AARP has collected

6. 5 million petitions
urging Congress
not to cut benefits.

EDITOR AND VICE PRESIDENT James S. Toedtman DEPUTY EDITOR Joseph C. Haney DESIGN DIRECTOR Eric Seidman EXECUTIVE EDITORS Barbara Basler, Larry Lipman, Carol Simons FEATURES EDITORS Elizabeth Agnvall, Patricia Barry, John Burgess, Trish Nicholson, Sylvia A. Smith, Barbranda Lumpkins Walls SENIOR EDITOR Carole Fleck MANAGER, EDITORIAL COPY Brian Miller COPY EDITORS Don Beaulieu, Victoria Lemley, Suzanne Tobin EDI TORIAL RESEARCHER Corinne Hayward EDITORIAL PRODUCTION MANAGER Cathy L. Hall AR T DIREC TOR Cathy Kelley ASSIS TAN T AR T DIREC TOR Anne Masters DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY Michael Wichita SENIOR EDI TORIAL ASSIS TAN T Nicole Williams PRODUCTION MANAGER Brian S. Horting QUALITY MANAGER Mel Baughman PRODUC TION COORDINATORS Roland A. Bland, Sherry Coleman, Judy Skilling ADVERTISING POLICIES MANAGER Pamela Byrd Berard ADVERTISING POLICIES ANALYSTS Brenda Allen, Mireya G. Donahue DIR. OF PUBLICATIONS PLANNING & PROMOTION David Singleton PLANNING & PROMOTIONS MANAGER Heather Nawrocki EDI TORIAL CON TRAC TS SPECIALISTS Amelia Jones, Pauline Moukouri SENIOR MANAGER, MEDIA RELATIONS Michelle Alvarez SENIOR RESEARCH ADVISER Earnestine Hargrove IT SUPPORT Consuela Allen, William Coulter, Mariel Galvan, Matthew Haines, Nono Kusuma, Bonnie Russell VICE PRESIDENT, ADVERTISING Shelagh Daly Miller ADVER TISING DIREC TOR Susan Severance DIRECTOR, SPECIAL ACCOUNTS Ina Nordstrom NE W YORK SALES MANAGER Peter Zeuschner ACCOUN T MANAGERS Kelly Burke, Raquel Hagen, Helen Holtzman, Michelle Weisfeld VICE PRESIDEN T, MARKE TING Patricia Lippe Davis DIREC TOR, IN TEGRATED MARKE TING Mark Bradbury ASSOC. DIREC TOR, IN TEGRATED MARKE TING Linda Tse Correia, Carolyn Fessler, Laurie Levitt ASSOC. DIREC TOR, MARKE TING EVEN TS & PROMOTION Shari Horowitz PROMO TIONS MANAGER Lisa Van Dyne DIRECTOR, OPERATIONS Christine Edwards SENIOR ADVER TISING SERVICES ADMINIS TRATOR Lori Cordenner ADVER TISING SERVICES COORDINATOR Elana Perew SENIOR ADVERTISING BILLING SPECIALIST Surfina Adams SENIOR ADVERTISING BILLING ASSOCIATE Tracey Fanuele ADVERTISING SALES REPRESENTATIVES NE W YORK Advertising Sales Office 646-521-2500 NEW ENGLAND Millstone Marketing 203-856-3264 DETROIT Maiorana+Partners 248-546-2222 MID WEST Zoeller Media Sales 312-782-8855 ATLANTA McLaughlin Media Mix 770-888-2212 FLORIDA McLaughlin Media Mix 561-904-9190 SOUTHWEST Carol Orr & Co. 214-521-6116 WEST COAST PP W Sales Group 415-543-5001 CANADA York Media 613-832-0576 DIREC T RESPONSE Adriana Associates 212-719-9737

Questions about your membership, change of
address, member services? Call AARP’s
Member Contact Center at 1-888-687-2277
(TTY [877] 434-7589) or e-mail member@aarp.org
Follow @AARPBulletin on Twitter and
Like AARPBulletin on Facebook