Three progressive organizations -- Social Security Works, Credo Action and the blog FireDogLake.com -- launched campaigns aimed at pressuring AARP to stand up for Social Security after HuffPost reported that the elderly lobby was planning to host a high-level "salon-style conversation" with deficit hawks and advocates of cutting Social Security. Tens of thousands -- including thousands of AARP members -- signed petitions urging AARP not to support benefit cuts.
The organization went ahead with the salon at the end of March, hosted by AARP CEO Barry Rand. Along with deficit experts, the salon also included defenders of Social Security.
After the salon, AARP's top lobbyist, Nancy LeaMond, said that the group was committed to defending Social Security from those who see it as a way to close the deficit.
"We've spent the better part of last year, when the focus was exclusively on the deficit, saying that Social Security should not be part of that discussion and we worked very hard on that and we're happy at the end of the day that we were able to keep it out of that debate," she said.