The Club for Growth recently said it hopes to spend $15 million on a media campaign backing Bush’s plan to privitize Social Security. Wall Street investment firms are gearing up for an expensive lobbying campaign of their own. Presumably, proponents of Bush’s approach will be hitting the public with a sales pitch just as soon as the White House unveils some kind of plan and/or once debate over the approach begins in Congress.
The AARP, to its credit, isn’t waiting that long.
AARP, the influential lobby for older Americans, signaled Wednesday for the first time how fervently it would fight President Bush’s proposal for private Social Security accounts, saying it would begin a $5 million two-week advertising campaign timed to coincide with the start of the new Congress.
The organization, which played a huge role in the passage of Medicare drug legislation last year, said it was prepared to spend much more in the next two years to block the creation of private accounts financed with payroll tax revenues.
“This is our signature issue,” said Christine M. Donohoo, chief communications officer for AARP, which represents 36 million Americans 50 and older. “We will do what it takes.”
The full-page advertisements, to appear next week in more than 50 newspapers around the country, say the accounts would cause “Social Insecurity.”
“There are places in your retirement planning for risk,” the advertisements say, “but Social Security isn’t one of them.”
One advertisement shows a couple in their 40’s looking at the reader. “If we feel like gambling, we’ll play the slots,” the message says.
Another advertisement shows traders in the pit of a commodities exchange. “Winners and losers are stock market terms,” it says. “Do you really want them to become retirement terms?”
I’m not sure if this is the best argument to attack Bush’s plan or not, but for the purposes of laying groundwork, that’s not entirely the point.
Bush is planning a full-blown public relations campaign, including barnstorming the nation as he did in advance of the war in Iraq, to rally support for undermining the most popular and successful domestic program in American history. That’s what makes the AARP’s efforts all the more important — the group is getting out there first.
The White House has spent some of the post-election season playing up the idea that the system is facing a “crisis” and may go “bankrupt.” Both are transparent falsehoods, but they’ve been offered over a holiday period in which people are not fully engaged in current events. Congress isn’t even in session.
But January brings a new Congress, a State of the Union address, and an unavoidable national debate — likely to be the biggest domestic policy struggle in at least a decade. The AARP is wisely getting out in front of the story, setting the stage with points the group believes are salient.
It’s almost — but not quite — enough to make the AARP’s absurd support for Bush’s Medicare scheme forgivable.