Alliance For Retired Americans - Decline, Reorganization and Name Change

Decline, Reorganization and Name Change

In May 2000, the AFL-CIO executive council voted to dissolve NCSC, and reform the group as the Alliance for Retired Americans. Labor leaders also wanted to reform the group as a tax-exempt nonprofit to which tax-deductible donations could be made. The reorganization also meant that AFL-CIO members could now automatically enroll their retirees as members rather than ask them to sign up. The "new" organization was officially launched in May 2001.

Since its relaunch in 2001, the Alliance has been very active politically. It fought against the Republican-endorsed Medicare prescription drug benefit in 2005, and President George W. Bush's Social Security privatization-reform plan in 2004. The Alliance endorsed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act in 2009, Rep. Paul Ryan's 2010 budget proposals, and proposals by the President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to cut Social Security benefits.

The Alliance has also clashed with AARP. The Alliance has often said it is not a competitor with AARP, and that it wishes to work in cooperation with the much-larger seniors' group. However, during the 2003 debate over the Medicare prescription drug benefit, the Alliance broke with AARP and publicly criticized AARP's leaders for being out of touch with seniors and caving in to financial incentives (AARP offers a number of health insurance products, some of which might have suffered had a more generous prescription drug benefit been enacted).