AARP Backs Out of Conservative Forums

AARP, already under fire from within its over-50 membership for endorsing the new Medicare law, is backing out of Social Security forums it agreed to sponsor with the Bush administration and from a group advocating a system overhaul to allow stock market investing.

"It was simply easier for us to be doing our own events and not be connected to groups with partisan agendas," Certner said, adding that AARP wanted to "avoid the politics of it as much as anything."

el - a little late for that.

The nation's largest advocacy group for older Americans already faces a backlash from some members for endorsing the Republicans' Medicare legislation. The support of AARP, whose 35 million members make it a powerful political force, helped the GOP win passage of the bill, which President George W. Bush signed into law last week.

Seniors have been ripping up or burning their AARP membership cards and flooding the group with complaints in what has been characterized as the largest revolt in its ranks in decades.

The Bush administration is renewing its push for an overhaul of Social Security to allow personal investment accounts, a move supported by the manufacturers' association.

The planned forums were a major part of the administration's strategy to start a public dialogue about the need to shore up future funding of the pay-as-you-go system, which in 2018 should begin to pay out more in benefits than it collects from workers' payroll taxes.