Out of curiosity I went to the national AARP website. I was impressed how well informed many are. Many are outraged by the constant lies by Romney and the obstructionism. They have a section called, "Politics, Current Events". Any member is allowed to post a "diary". Some of these were very good and the ones that were not,often had well-informed replies.
MY problem is with the posts that were represented as facts.741 read this and 157 commented on it!
One example of this is "500 economists support Romney for president!" The article was vague but talked about increasing the tax base and lowering who is eligible for social security,ect. and of course how much better their plan is then Obama's,who increases the power of the federal government to impose one size fits all and creates greater incentives for waste! None of the economist's names were mentioned.
Another diary was read by 2943 with 495 comments.
"Are you better off then 4 years ago?" (This is a slightly condensed factual version,lots of redundant info. ) Been to the grocery store and can only afford to buy from the end caps? Take out a loan to fill your car, heat your home or have electricity. Can you afford 4 more years of communist rule?
Another diary that 459 read with 111 comments. "Obama care to start penalizing Medicare Providing hospitals." This is dealing with patients who are readmitted to the hospital before 30 days. They talk about how unfair,dangerous and how Dr's are upset. It's not fair to penalize a hospital. In a SMALL paragraph at the end it is mentioned that every case will be reviewed and extenuating circumstances will be taken into account.
"Economic model correctly picks last 8 presidents." This was written on August 28th several days after it had been proven false by Nick Silver. 90 read this with 14 comments.
AARP is a powerful group that can reach many seniors that aren't members.What bothers me is the number of people who read these lies masquerading as facts and believe them! I realize that a lot just ignore it.I also know that there a lot of seniors who are not being informed properly and are easy targets for fear tactics. I am going to start writing my own "blog" at AARP to get the truth out as often as possible.