AARP discovers that Americans want more taxes

Since President Bush started his effort to reform Social Security, the seniors lobby AARP has fought personal accounts tooth and nail. But even the vaunted AARP can't escape the numbers, so today we find this improbable headline on Politico: "AARP to push for Social Security fix"

Don't get too excited, especially if you're under 30. The AARP polling arm called 1,514 people and - surprise, surprise - a majority agree with the AARP's position that Social Security can be saved if we just raise taxes yet again:

Of eight possible options, a majority of respondents favored three measures that would raise revenue for Social Security in some fashion: increasing the income cap to $150,000; increasing the payroll tax by 0.5 percent for both workers and employers, and changing the benefit formula to make the program more progressive.

Efforts to raise the retirement age, change the longevity index, cut benefits for new retirees and implement modified price indexing were opposed by large margins.

Let's recap: one of the country's largest lobbying groups, whose sole purpose is to influence federal policy to funnel cash to seniors, sponsors a survey on Social Security. That survey finds that Americans don't want their benefits cut but are willing to let other people (the rich and young) pay for them. This is the gimme gimme logic of eight-year-olds, not eighty-year-olds. At least it should be.

Extra - FactCheck analyzes AARP's temporary Social Security fixes.