No Apology for Fund-Raising Tactics : Roosevelt Defends Social Security Mail

The eldest son of Franklin D. Roosevelt, testifying before a House panel Tuesday, refused to apologize to angry legislators from both parties who accused him of frightening Social Security recipients in order to raise money for his lobbying organization.

“Our cause is a good one, our methods are honest,” he said.

“What in the world have you been up to, Jimmy?” asked Rep. Andrew Jacobs Jr. (D-Ind.), chairman of the Social Security subcommittee of the Ways and Means Committee, which conducted an investigation into the barrage of direct mail that retirees have received from James Roosevelt’s National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare.

Jacobs and other members of Congress have charged that Roosevelt’s organization has needlessly frightened Social Security and Medicare beneficiaries about the solvency of the programs, which legislators say are in no danger.

The organization raised nearly $30 million last year, most of it from mail-order sales of 2.8 million memberships at $10 each.

Letter Campaign Urged

“We wanted millions of the elderly to serve as their own best lobbyists,” by sending millions of petitions and letters to Congress, said Roosevelt, the last witness of the hearing.

Tanned and looking fit, the 79-year-old Roosevelt sat in the front row of a crowded hearing room for nearly two hours to hear members of Congress denounce his committee as useless and the tone of its fund-raising letters as frightening.

One message mailed to all members said: “I need your help immediately to stop the Medicare hospital fund from going bankrupt.” Another referred to imminent danger of “deep cuts” in Social Security benefits.

Members of Congress insist, however, that this will never happen because the programs have tremendous popularity with both the public and politicians. Medicare administrators project that the fund will run out of money in 1996, but Congress seems certain to pass a rescue plan long before that date. Cuts in Social Security payments seem virtually out of the question, in the meantime, because the retirement trust fund now is running big surpluses.

There is no such danger, and therefore no need for Roosevelt’s lobby, said Jacobs. “If your organization sent letters promising to protect the people of Indiana from polar bears, you’d be just as successful. I don’t know anybody in Indiana who has been bitten by a polar bear, or any member of Congress who would vote to abolish Social Security.”

Unable to Cite Example

Under questioning from Jacobs, Roosevelt admitted that he could not name a member of Congress whose vote on a Social Security or Medicare issue had been changed through the efforts of his lobby.

Rep. Bob Wise (D- W. Va.) said that the Roosevelt committee’s “credibility on Capitol Hill is none.”

Roosevelt insisted, however, that “powerful forces” are opposed to Social Security and Medicare, so it is necessary for his committee to “help seniors protect their own interests.”

The group uses strong language in asking for money because “our mailing must stand out among the dozens of mailings received by people each week,” Roosevelt said. Senior citizens aren’t intimidated or confused by the appeal, he said.

“At 79, as a very senior citizen,” he said, “I assure you that I am very capable of understanding and dealing with my own personal and public affairs, and so are other seniors. Believe me, they see through falsehoods and false pretenses with a very sharp eye.”

His critics in Congress strongly disagree. They accuse Roosevelt of sowing fear among their constituents when his committee sends out a mailing asking for money.

Eleven House members and a senator asked special permission to address the subcommittee hearing Tuesday, and they were unanimous in their denunciation of Roosevelt’s organization.

Individual Donations

Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio) held up photocopies of 15 checks, totaling more than $250, that were sent to the Roosevelt committee by one of her constituents who got 15 letters asking for money.

“Each time my district is inundated by the National Committee’s latest mailing,” she said, “my office receives distressed phone calls from frightened and confused seniors wondering whether or not the next Social Security check will be delivered or their next hospital visit will be covered by Medicare.”

Rep. Dan Coats (R-Ind.) said that his father “receives these letters and questions me every time I come down, asking, ‘Is Social Security in trouble?’ ”

Roosevelt’s group provided the subcommittee with an audited financial report. It was the only one of seven organizations that responded to a subcommittee request that they send representatives to testify on the issue of deceptive mailings.

Roosevelt said that other senior-interest organizations do not provide complete reports on their finances, fund-raising and lobbying activities, and that his committee is registering voluntarily in every state.