AARP To Battle Social Security Privatization

The AARP, the high-profile lobbying group for 36 million Americans over 50, plans to launch a two-week advertising campaign to battle President Bush's proposal to privatize Social Security via the rollout of ownership accounts. The group headquartered here, plans to spend some $5 million on the advertising push to fight the creation of the proposed accounts, which would be funded through payroll taxes. According to reports, the full-page ads are scheduled to appear in roughly 50 newspapers across the country. One of the ads displays a picture of stock traders with the tagline, "Winners and losers are stock market terms. Do you really want them to become retirement terms?" Another shows a couple saying, "If we feel like gambling, we'll play the slots."