Roosevelt Son’s Group Accused of Scare Tactics : Lobby Group Accused of Scaring Elderly

Social Security Commissioner Dorcas Hardy has denounced a group led by a son of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt for soliciting money from old people for the avowed purpose of saving their Social Security benefits.

Hardy said the benefits are in no danger and accused the National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare, a lobbying group headed by former Rep. James Roosevelt (D-Calif.), of being “irresponsible” and “inaccurate.”

A spokesman for the organization headed by the son of the President who began the Social Security System denied scare tactics have been used to raise money.

Threats to Aid Cited

The group began a nationwide mass mailing Dec. 26 in which senior citizens are warned by Roosevelt that “never in the 51 years since my father, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, started the Social Security System have there been such threats to our Social Security and Medicare benefits as (in this) decade.”

The four-page letter says that the government has used money from the Social Security Trust Fund to keep its checks from bouncing and that Congress has cut benefits for more than 10 million Americans born after 1916.

It notes that Social Security payments are being taxed for the first time under the new tax reform law and claims that the retirement age for receiving full benefits will be increased from 65 to 67.

Tactics ‘Irresponsible’

“The tactics are certainly irresponsible,” Hardy said in an interview Wednesday. “The comments are quite inaccurate and (Roosevelt) is scaring people. It’s unfair and totally uncalled for.

“My guess is if anybody wants to be silly enough, or worse, to send $10, I sure want to know what he does with the $10.”

Jack McDavitt, the lobby group’s director of public affairs, said, “A number of people have accused us of scare tactics. They are confusing the message with the messenger. People have a tendency to do that.”

McDavitt said for a $10 yearly fee, senior citizens receive “a personal, gold-embossed plastic membership card,” a newspaper and “a legislative alert service” that immediately advises them by letter or telegram of any developments in Washington involving Social Security and Medicare benefits.