Obama thanked the organization for doing "what it does best" by "organizing" and "letting people know the options that are out there." This is how the allegedly nonpartisan AARP lets its members know the options:
Why is AARP not standing up for seniors when Obama says he will cut Medicare to help pay for health care? The proposed changes to Medicare will help to get fraud, waste and abuse out of the system and create payment incentives to reward doctors and hospitals for the quality, rather than the quantity, of care they provide. They will not cut the benefits our members rely on in the traditional Medicare program, but will help to keep it affordable to make sure you get the care you need. Isn't this socialized medicine? No. In socialized medicine the government directly owns the hospitals and directly employs the doctors. No one in Washington is talking seriously about anything like that.
At the link, Phil Klein notes that AARP was whistling quite a different tune when Bush suggested much more modest Medicare cuts. As Obama heads to Raleigh, N.C. and Bristol, Va. this week, the GOP is doing its own thing, first with its own town halls:
Senate Republicans beat President Obama to the punch. Just hours before he planned to hold an online healthcare town hall with AARP members, the Republicans told Whispers that they have already talked to 1.3 million Americans in their own nightly healthcare town halls. It's just the first step in what both Democrats and Republicans say will be a heated and very busy August recess when lawmakers and special interests groups plan to flood the airwaves, phone lines, and even county fairs with their pitches for and against Obama-style healthcare. The GOP leadership on July 6 set a goal of talking to 1 million Americans before the August recess began, and insiders suggest that the Republicans will end the campaign by talking to nearly 2 million. Some 16 Republican senators took part in the nightly effort, participating in hourlong calls to thousands. Senate Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander, for example, reached out to some 45,000 in Tennessee and got half of those on the phone. During the calls he took several questions on the Obama healthcare plan and the GOP alternatives.
The GOP will also be doing Blue Dogs the courtesy of re-introducing them to some of their districts' small-business owners:
Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) explained earlier Tuesday that "we're going to bring together some small-business people ... from around the country, many of them from districts represented by some of the Blue Dogs that obviously have been speaking to the centrists on the other side who say, 'Look, the healthcare approach on the table is bad policy. It's bad for business, and in these times of economic difficulty, why should we be adding to payroll taxes? Why should we be adding to the burdens of small businesses?' "