Investments for me, but not for thee

Mort Kondracke has an article today titled “Social Security 101: Private accounts should earn you more”

Groups that oppose private accounts like the AARP will jump on the “should” part of that statement and dismiss Bush’s reform plan as too risky for Americans. Well, Americans besides the AARP:

As for AARP's newest crusade to keep private accounts out of Social Security, members of Congress are already seeing that message around Capitol Hill. The ad campaign by the organization, which spends tens of millions of dollars on lobbying, calls for a stop to the president's push for allowing young workers to invest a portion of the taxes they pay for the retirement account into the stock market. AARP is likely to spend even more on the campaign than the original $5 million investment.

Some conservatives call it hypocrisy on the AARP's part. The organization manages an investment portfolio of $912 million. In 2003, it invested $737 million of its portfolio in stocks and mutual funds, earning returns of $60 million.

"AARP seems to believe that capitalism is a fine thing as long as they're the only ones practicing it," said Pete Sepp, vice president of communications for the National Taxpayers Union.

Well put.