President Avoids AARP Convention; Turns Back on Seniors and Opts for
Friendly Partisan Rally
WASHINGTON, Oct. 12 /U.S. Newswire/ --
President George W. Bush, who trumpets the passage of the Medicare drug
benefit as one of his major domestic policy accomplishments, will be
conspicuously absent from the AARP's annual convention in Las Vegas,
according to the Bush-Cheney '04 campaign schedule.
Rather than speak to the planned 25,000
senior convention- goers, the president's schedule indicates he will
stump with Republican governors at a Nevada Victory 2004 Rally planned
at the nearby University of Nevada Las Vegas campus.
The fact that the president, who would have
never had a Medicare drug benefit to tout had he not had AARP's
behind-the- scenes support and public endorsement of the controversial
law, is choosing a friendly crowd of Republicans over a potentially
angry crush of seniors, comes as no surprise to Ed Coyle, executive
director of the Alliance for Retired Americans.
"George Bush and lawmakers who supported the
law grossly miscalculated the political mileage they would get from
passing the contentious law and will avoid at all costs this close to
Election Day any potentially embarrassing public events," Coyle said.
"Bush didn't get the slam dunk from seniors he banked on.
"Why is the president afraid to thank those
who made the drug benefit possible because it's turned out to be an
election season hot potato?" Coyle asked.
"Perhaps it's because Bush
used the AARP, seniors are furious and no presidential candidate wants
to risk being booed off stage by thousands of seniors. This drug benefit
is not the victory for seniors the president plugs it to be and the
president and his handlers know that to be true."
A poll by the Kaiser Family Foundation and
the Harvard School of Public Health recently reported that Medicare
beneficiaries are more than twice as likely to view the new law
unfavorably, compared to those who had a favorable view of it. The same
survey indicated that seniors overwhelmingly support allowing Americans
to buy less expensive drugs from Canada, as well as allowing Medicare to
negotiate with drug companies for lower prices. The president opposes
both.
"George Bush tried to pull a fast one on
America's seniors, they know it and he knows they know it. That's why he
will avoid at any cost making a scene before representatives of the
country's most powerful voting bloc," Coyle said. "Angry seniors giving
the president a piece of their minds are to be avoided at all costs and
no one knows this better than George Bush and his handlers."
The Alliance for Retired Americans is a
national organization that advocates for the rights and well being of
more than 3 million retirees and their families. |