Bad Bargain Golden Oldies

WHO would have expected Alan Simpson, that folksy, aw-shucks senator from Wyoming, to be the kind of guy to beat up defenseless little old ladies? Yet Simpson, the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee’s Social Security subcommittee, has been holding hearings zeroing in on the tax-exempt status of the American Association of Retired Persons. And after all, isn’t AARP Grandma’s advocate in Washington, making sure politicians don’t touch her Social Security check?

Those accusing Simpson of engaging in a partisan witch-hunt, motivated by AARP’s protectiveness of Medicare’s status quo, don’t seem to have noticed the Democrat at his side in the hearing room. Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana is obviously at least as sick of AARP as Simpson is.

TM

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Thomas McArdle

Thomas McArdle was a senior writer for Investor’s Business Daily and a White House speechwriter for President George W. Bush

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WHO would have expected Alan Simpson, that folksy, aw-shucks senator from Wyoming, to be the kind of guy to beat up defenseless little old ladies? Yet Simpson, the new chairman of the Senate Finance Committee’s Social Security subcommittee, has been holding hearings zeroing in on the tax-exempt status of the American Association of Retired Persons. And after all, isn’t AARP Grandma’s advocate in Washington, making sure politicians don’t touch her Social Security check?

Those accusing Simpson of engaging in a partisan witch-hunt, motivated by AARP’s protectiveness of Medicare’s status quo, don’t seem to have noticed the Democrat at his side in the hearing room. Sen. John Breaux of Louisiana is obviously at least as sick of AARP as Simpson is.