AARP’s Hidden Agenda and the Value of Motherhood

On this Tuesday, July 18, 2023 broadcast, Kim Monson examines two distinct but connected themes: the corporate interests behind organizations claiming to represent seniors, and the undervalued role of mothers and homemakers in American society. Phil Kerpen of American Commitment exposes AARP’s financial ties to insurance companies, while 95-year-old Lt. Col Bill Rutledge shares insights from his mother’s era about the fulfilling nature of homemaking.

AARP’s Conflict of Interest with Seniors

Start listening at 30:20 – Hour 1

Phil Kerpen, president of American Commitment, exposes the troubling relationship between AARP and UnitedHealth Group. According to Kerpen’s research, AARP receives approximately 60% of its revenue from its relationship with UnitedHealth, creating a fundamental conflict of interest when advocating for seniors on healthcare issues.

Kerpen explains that AARP essentially functions as a marketing arm for insurance products rather than a genuine advocacy organization for America’s seniors. His organization’s polling reveals that most AARP members are unaware of this financial relationship and would view the organization differently if they understood how much money flows from insurance companies to AARP.

The discussion extends to entitlement spending and the looming fiscal crisis. Kerpen warns that politicians from both parties refuse to address the unsustainable trajectory of Social Security and Medicare spending. Without reform, he argues, America faces a Greece-style debt crisis that will force chaotic spending cuts or tax increases far worse than gradual reforms implemented today.

“The problem’s not going away just because politicians refuse to confront it. At some point we have a Greece-style acute debt crisis, and reality forces a very chaotic reduction in spending.”

Phil Kerpen, President, American Commitment

The Everyday Housewife and American Family Values

Start listening at 73:21 – Hour 2

Lt. Col Bill Rutledge, retired United States Air Force and approaching his 95th birthday, reflects on his mother’s role as an everyday housewife in the 1930s. Rutledge wrote an essay six years ago capturing the realities of motherhood in that era, when women faced genuine health challenges caring for children through measles, mumps, whooping cough, scarlet fever, and polio.

Rutledge contrasts the legitimate health fears of that generation with modern anxieties about COVID, noting that childhood diseases in the 1930s posed far greater mortality risks. His mother was a happy woman who found fulfillment in caring for her family without aspirations of “having it all.” This era valued the domestic role of women as essential rather than viewing it as a demotion.

The conversation turns to how modern society has devalued motherhood while simultaneously promoting military-funded abortions. Rutledge observes the juxtaposition between Vietnam-era accusations of soldiers as “baby killers” and today’s military policy of paying for abortion services. He argues that the breakdown of family values affects not just individual families but the entire nation, noting that America’s birthrate no longer replaces the population.

“If a person is so involved in their own ego and what’s going to be good for them as opposed to looking after others, it’s a detriment to them, to their family, and to the whole country.”

Lt. Col Bill Rutledge, Retired U.S. Air Force