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So you are a Liberal disgusted that AARP is providing funding to ALEC that is a major Conservative think tank that proposes and supports conservative legislation? Just seeking clarification.
I don't speak for the OP, but I'm disgusted that AARP would fund an organization that espouses so many policies that make life harder and cost money to seniors, especially those on fixed incomes.
ALEC writes what they call "model" bills and puts them in the hands of legislators they fund through campaign donations. Most of the time these bills go right to the floor of state legislatures for votes with no appreciable changes. The vast majority of ALEC's funders are large corporations who want laws that favor the needs of corporations and the 1%. Not senior citizens.
In 2012, ALEC disbanded its arm that promoted things like Florida's Stand Your Ground law, Arizona's SB1070 anti-immigration law, various voter suppression bills, and laws requiring inmates to serve full sentences without ANY options for parole or supervised release. Public outrage led to pressure on the corporations funding ALEC and ALEC responded by eliminating their work in this area.
They are still, however, promoting bills that are bad for voters, bad for hourly workers, bad for public education, bad for consumers, bad for women, bad for immigrants, bad for LGBTQ people, bad for the planet, bad for low-income bank customers, bad for the National Park Service, etc., etc. While many of ALEC's meeting are open to the public, all of its bill-drafting is done behind closed doors and is very secretive.
Who LIKES ALEC? The Koch brothers; ExxonMobil and other oil companies; the pharmaceutical industry; the big banks and predatory lenders; the insurance industry; telecommunications companies that want you to pay through the roof for phones, TV, and internet access; Walmart; other groups that want to cut back on a minimum wage for hourly workers; politicians who want to block certain segments of our citizenry from voting; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the NRA; the private prison industry; the crowd that wants the government to accompany women to their doctor's appointments; the crowd that wants to investigate who's in public restrooms.
Who has benefitted from ALEC? Most dramatically Republican governors. People like Sam Brownback of Kansas, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Pence of Indiana, Jan Brewer and later Doug Ducey of Arizona, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. ALEC is behind most of the things they claim as major accomplishments.
The Bush Administration might have been the heyday of ALEC with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John ********, and Tom DeLay all strongly tied to ALEC. ALEC gave long-time supporter and former Gov. Rich Perry of Texas its Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award in 2010. Gov. Fallin got it last year.
In some states, one of them being my state of Arizona, as many as 150 ALEC-provided "model" bills are proposed before state legislature each year. This organization is quietly making laws throughout our land. In 2012, the pressure for corporations to disengage from ALEC became so intense, literally hundreds of corporations with strong ties to the group — Shell Oil, State Farm and Blue Cross, Walmart, McDonalds, Google, Microsoft, etc., etc. — claim to have "dropped their memberships." But given ALEC has an annual budget estimated at $7 million annually, and the "model bills" keep rolling out, they're getting support from somewhere.
I don't speak for the OP, but I'm disgusted that AARP would fund an organization that espouses so many policies that make life harder and cost money to seniors, especially those on fixed incomes.
ALEC writes what they call "model" bills and puts them in the hands of legislators they fund through campaign donations. Most of the time these bills go right to the floor of state legislatures for votes with no appreciable changes. The vast majority of ALEC's funders are large corporations who want laws that favor the needs of corporations and the 1%. Not senior citizens.
In 2012, ALEC disbanded its arm that promoted things like Florida's Stand Your Ground law, Arizona's SB1070 anti-immigration law, various voter suppression bills, and laws requiring inmates to serve full sentences without ANY options for parole or supervised release. Public outrage led to pressure on the corporations funding ALEC and ALEC responded by eliminating their work in this area.
They are still, however, promoting bills that are bad for voters, bad for hourly workers, bad for public education, bad for consumers, bad for women, bad for immigrants, bad for LGBTQ people, bad for the planet, bad for low-income bank customers, bad for the National Park Service, etc., etc. While many of ALEC's meeting are open to the public, all of its bill-drafting is done behind closed doors and is very secretive.
Who LIKES ALEC? The Koch brothers; ExxonMobil and other oil companies; the pharmaceutical industry; the big banks and predatory lenders; the insurance industry; telecommunications companies that want you to pay through the roof for phones, TV, and internet access; Walmart; other groups that want to cut back on a minimum wage for hourly workers; politicians who want to block certain segments of our citizenry from voting; the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; the NRA; the private prison industry; the crowd that wants the government to accompany women to their doctor's appointments; the crowd that wants to investigate who's in public restrooms.
Who has benefitted from ALEC? Most dramatically Republican governors. People like Sam Brownback of Kansas, Mary Fallin of Oklahoma, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, Rick Scott of Florida, Mike Pence of Indiana, Jan Brewer and later Doug Ducey of Arizona, Rick Snyder of Michigan, Nikki Haley of South Carolina, and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. ALEC is behind most of the things they claim as major accomplishments.
The Bush Administration might have been the heyday of ALEC with Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, John ********, and Tom DeLay all strongly tied to ALEC. ALEC gave long-time supporter and former Gov. Rich Perry of Texas its Thomas Jefferson Freedom Award in 2010. Gov. Fallin got it last year.
In some states, one of them being my state of Arizona, as many as 150 ALEC-provided "model" bills are proposed before state legislature each year. This organization is quietly making laws throughout our land. In 2012, the pressure for corporations to disengage from ALEC became so intense, literally hundreds of corporations with strong ties to the group — Shell Oil, State Farm and Blue Cross, Walmart, McDonalds, Google, Microsoft, etc., etc. — claim to have "dropped their memberships." But given ALEC has an annual budget estimated at $7 million annually, and the "model bills" keep rolling out, they're getting support from somewhere.
Thank you for the information. I'm going to check it. If it's as you say I'll be donating some money to them. I agree with everything mentioned and I'm sure that many of the other old folks here agree just as much with them. Seven million dollars is not much money. They need more.
There is always a cause. Why would you keep a person that wasn't necessary or able to do the job?
I have been a union worker, management, and self employed and have seen both sides.
Thinkalot - you clearly don't.
My spouse - very able and capable worker - was let go from a job in sales here in Utah when it was found out he was Jewish and had previously lived in Los Angeles where that "nasty Rodney King lived"...because we all know that when you live in LA you sympathize with black people.
THAT was the "cause".....even tho it was not stated as such.
As long as there are morons running small businesses..... there will be people losing jobs cloaked in discrimination. With no appeal.
It will take a lot more than that to get me to stop supporting AARP. I generally view AARP as an island of sanity in an ocean of utter nonsense that is often written about senior and retirement issues.
It will take a lot more than that to get me to stop supporting AARP. I generally view AARP as an island of sanity in an ocean of utter nonsense that is often written about senior and retirement issues.
And they publish some great articles at a minimal subscription rate
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