Roz Sherman, Published in Home News & Tribune - Central Jersey on 03/19/05

What a difference a year makes! Last year AARP was the darling of the Republicans for having supported their Medicare bill (which possibly lost AARP thousands of members — me included). This year, without a moment's hesitation, the Republicans have turned on them, and this organization of staid seniors is being accused of being an anti-soldier, pro-gay marriage leftist group.

Viewed as Bush's toughest opponent in the battle to overhaul Social Security, AARP is now the center of a well-funded attack campaign being led by USA Next. Charlie Jarvis, president of USA Next has indicated that their goal is to peel off 1 million members from AARP by presenting itself as a conservative free-market alternative and to prove that AARP is a liberal organization out of step with a large number of their member's Republican values.

USA Next was formerly known as United Seniors Association which was founded in 2002. This group, known to be funded by the pharmaceutical industry, used those funds as a back-door method of helping elect sympathetic House Republicans. That same year, Public Citizen's Congress Watch, denounced United Seniors Association calling its leadership "hired guns."