Anti-AARP Group Set for Launch -- Alliance for Retirement Prosperity (ARP)

This is great news for millions of Senior Americans who are sick and tired of the AARP siding with the Democrats and especially with Obama on his Obamacare. We are still trying to figure out how AARP in good conscience could be for Obamacare. Guess it doesn't hurt that a friend of Obama now is head of the AARP.   Almost wanted to join AARP so I could cancel it.  Took great pleasure in cancelling my Mom's membership.  What AARP charged for supplemental insurance was too high for a so-called non-profit.

I am all for a profit group versus non-profit because non-profit entities are not supposed to get involved in partisan politics like AARP has been doing for years including running ads for Obamacare. This way the new Alliance for Retirement Prosperity can take on Obama and the Democrats and be within the law.

We are looking forward to their launch on Wednesday and will have more details on the new organization at that time.

The Alliance for Retirement Prosperity is positioning itself as an AARP competitor.
By SARAH KLIFF | 9/13/10 4:33 AM EDT Updated: 9/13/10 10:06 AM EDT

Social Security Institute President Larry Hunter, a longtime Republican adviser, will launch the for-profit Alliance for Retirement Prosperity on Wednesday, representing a $5 million conservative challenge to the AARP.

Where the nonpartisan, nonprofit AARP has sided with the Obama administration on many issues — most recently and most prominently, ardently supporting the health care reform law — the alliance will actively lobby for the law's repeal.

"The Alliance mobilizes our members and allies to further laws and policies that derive from the common-sense conservative consensus, and we work to defeat and repeal laws and polices that are at odds with it," according to the group's statement of political philosophy.

Among its top-ticket agenda items: "Repeal ObamaCare, prevent the rationing of health care and reform Medicare and Medicaid."

The Alliance may position itself as an AARP competitor, but its budget is easily dwarfed by that of the age-old seniors organization. Founded in 1958, the AARP boasted an operating revenue of $1.42 billion in 2009, according to its 2009 annual report. The group spent more than $21 million on lobbying last year, according to OpenSecrets.org.

Other conservative groups, such as the 60 Plus Association and the American Seniors Association, have also billed themselves as alternatives to the AARP but have failed to challenge the group in size or influence.

Hunter, currently a senior fellow at Americans for Prosperity, helms the group as president. The organization currently has four staff members working on the project full time, alongside 20 or so strategists and consultants also involved in the project.

The new group will, in many ways, mirror the structure of the AARP in ways that others have not. It will actively lobby the Hill, as well as provide insurance discounts and a social community. Its website, which officially launches Wednesday, will feature an insurance purchasing marketplace alongside soap opera summaries and recipes.

Excerpt: Read more: Politico.com