Tom Delay is but one of the Recipients...
To the tune of some $130,000 in cash and prizes!
By Brad Friedman on 2/28/2005, 1:30pm PT  

Our understanding was that it was supposed to have been Democrats who liked to "scare old people about Social Security". At least according to Rush, Sean, Fox and Friends.

Turns out it's the Rightwingnuts who have actually turned the practice into both an art form, and a cash cow. The shadowy rightwing group, National Center for Public Policy Research (NCPPR) has been quietly sending scare letters to the nation's elderly for years in which they ask recipients to keep the letter a secret, while they terrify them about their Social Security benefits.

And, again, --- surprise! --- House Majority Leader Tom Delay seems to be one of the biggest beneficiaries thereof! Delay is reported today, in a RAW STORY Exclusive, to have received some $130,000 from the NCPPR who has been paying for "posh" Delay vacations!

From RAW STORY's investigative report:

The group's letters target seniors of both parties, aiming to convince them their Social Security benefits are in jeopardy and thereby induce them to donate money. The mailings also encourage seniors to keep the mailing secret from others, perhaps even from family members.

"Inside your sealed envelope is information regarding the potential collapse of the Social Security system – and how it can endanger you and the entire United States senior citizen population,” NCPPR president Amy Ridenour writes in one such letter obtained by RAW STORY (Read the letter here). “It is also critical that you share this pertinent information ONLY [sic] with other trustworthy individuals.”

“Should we put most of our time and effort into fighting to prevent liberal big-spenders from draining an estimated $100 billion from the trust fund?” Ridenour asks. “Or should I go head to head against the left-wing's reckless use of $70 billion tax surplus when they promised to put our Social Security first?”

"The liberal monster is primed to rip your Social Security to shreds,” reads another hyperbolic letter reported on by the San Francisco Examiner in 1998.

The group uses at least four different letterheads to solicit money; all of the money is funneled into the same organization.

And just when you thought these guys had scraped the bottom of the "Moral Values” barrel. Think again.

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