Pulling Strings from Afar - Page 1

[Guest guest]

http://www.aarp.org/bulletin/departments/2003/consumer/0205_consumer_1.html

Pulling Strings from AfarDrug Industry Finances Nonprofit Groups That Claim to

Speak for Older Americans

 

 

 

 

 

By Bill Hogan

February 2003

 

Page 1 2 | next >>

 

United Seniors Association, based in Fairfax, Va., calls itself an " influential

and effective " advocacy organization for older Americans.

 

The Seniors Coalition, based in Springfield, Va., describes itself as an

" advocacy organization that represents the interests and concerns of America's

senior citizens. "

 

The 60 Plus Association, based in Arlington, Va., describes itself as " an

advocacy group with a free enterprise, less government, less taxes approach to

seniors issues. "

 

As recently as 2001, none of the organizations listed any revenue from

membership dues on their tax returns.

 

If you're like millions of other older Americans, you've seen their names many

times before—either on fundraising appeals or on television spots promoting

political candidates. (One of the groups spent more than $10 million last year

on politician-promoting ads featuring Art Linkletter, the folksy television

personality.) More than ever before, they've been trying to influence political

campaigns and shape policies that affect older Americans.

 

But who's really behind these organizations? And are they really working to help

older Americans?

 

COMMON DENOMINATORS

Aside from the similar descriptions and locations in the Virginia suburbs of the

nation's capital, the three nonprofit organizations have several things in

common.

 

 

Following the Money

Three nonprofit organizations that claim to speak for older Americans are in

fact heavily bankrolled by the pharmaceutical industry, an examination of tax

records by the AARP Bulletin shows. United Seniors Association, for example, got

more than a third of its funds in 2001 from drug-industry sources. The big

donors included Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA),

the industry's trade association; Citizens for Better Medicare, a PhRMA-funded

nonprofit group; and Pfizer Inc. Total industry contributions: at least $3.1

million.

 

 

For starters, all three organizations claim to be nonpartisan, though they

support—almost without exception—the campaigns and causes of one political

party.

 

All three organizations were formed by, or with help from, direct mail

entrepreneur Richard Viguerie, and two have been operated in recent years by

former officers or employees of Viguerie's companies.

 

All three organizations have been criticized over the years for questionable

fundraising practices, and, recently, the Social Security Administration ordered

one of them to halt what it determined to be misleading mailings.

 

All three organizations claim to speak for millions of older Americans, although

as recently as 2001 none of the three listed any revenue from membership dues on

their tax returns. Moreover, an investigation by the AARP Bulletin shows that

virtually all of their largest contributions in recent years have come from the

same source—the nation's pharmaceutical industry.

 

DRUG-INDUSTRY TENTACLES

Perhaps it isn't surprising that the three organizations have so willingly done

the pharmaceutical industry's bidding.

 

" I think of the pharmaceutical industry as being like an octopus, with a deep

reach no other industry can match, " says Frank Clemente, the director of Public

Citizen's Congress Watch, a Washington-based consumer organization. " This is an

industry that's not only spending more on direct lobbying than any other

industry but also spending more on front groups and related entities than any

other industry. "

 

Kenneth Goldstein, a political scientist at the University of Wisconsin who

oversees the Wisconsin Advertising Project, says the drug industry has also

emerged as unquestionably " the top-spending industry " in terms of political

advertising.

 

Indeed, the industry invested more than $30 million in the 2002 elections, with

more than a third of that bankrolling television ads bearing the name of United

Seniors Association. The United Seniors ads promoted candidates in five Senate

and 20 House races around the nation, including one in Pennsylvania that pitted

two incumbents—Democrat Tim Holden and Republican George Gekas—against each

other in a redrawn House district.

 

Holden says that the pharmaceutical industry spent more than $1 million trying

to defeat him because he supports a prescription drug plan administered by

Medicare; Gekas favored a plan backed by the pharmaceutical industry. (Gekas

could not be reached for comment.)

 

" It was unconscionable that the pharmaceutical industry would mislead people by

hiding behind a name such as United Seniors, " Holden told the Bulletin. " They

misled the voters of the 17th District. They have such deep pockets that they

can go in and influence people who are busy with their everyday lives and don't

have time to figure out that a group called United Seniors is actually the

pharmaceutical industry. "

 

Clemente told the Bulletin that Public Citizen's Congress Watch will ask the

Internal Revenue Service to investigate whether United Seniors has violated its

nonprofit tax status by engaging in " electioneering activity. "

 

WEALTH AND STEALTH

When the pharmaceutical industry speaks these days, many Americans may not be

able to recognize its voice. That's because the industry often uses " front

groups " that work to advance its agenda under the veil of other interests.

 

Michael Pfau, a professor at the University of Oklahoma who has studied

" stealth " political advertising, says his research indicates that " most people

miss sponsorship completely " and attribute ads run by organizations like United

Seniors to the candidates themselves. " Some of these organizations today, " Pfau

says, " are what we would call, in public relations language, front groups. "

 

Consider, for example, the case of Citizens for Better Medicare (CBM). The

Washington-based nonprofit sprang to life in 1999 as the sponsor of a series of

ads featuring " Flo, " an arthritic bowler who urged viewers to help " keep the

government out of our medicine cabinets. " At its peak CBM was spending more than

$1 million a week on ads at least partly designed to influence the 2000

elections.

 

Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), the drug

industry's chief trade association, bankrolled the $60 million-plus advertising

blitz and installed a former employee, Timothy C. Ryan, as CBM's executive

director. The organization was the linchpin of the industry's drive to stave off

a government-operated prescription plan for older Americans.

 

In documents filed with the Internal Revenue Service in 2000, Ryan estimated

that CBM would raise and spend more than $60 million through July 2003. But the

Bulletin has learned the pharmaceutical industry quietly pulled the plug on CBM

last year, just as PhRMA started channeling what it called " unrestricted

educational grants " to United Seniors Association.

 

(Bruce Lott, a spokesman for PhRMA, says that CBM is " largely inactive. " CBM

executive director Nona Wegner, who's a former official of the Seniors

Coalition, did not respond to requests for an interview.)

 

At about the same time, the pharmaceutical industry began using the 60 Plus

Association as a screen for its efforts to defeat prescription drug legislation

at the state level.

 

Among other things, it hired Bonner & Associates, a Washington-based firm that

specializes in " Astroturf lobbying " —so named because it's the " artificial "

version of grassroots lobbying—to fight such legislation in Minnesota and New

Mexico. The firm's paid callers, reading from scripts that identified them as

representatives of 60 Plus, urged residents to ask their governors to veto the

legislation. Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. later said it had paid Bonner &

Associates to make the calls.

 

Page 1 2 | next >>

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gettingwell- / Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to: Gettingwell-

Or, go to our group site: Gettingwell

 

 

 

 

Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now