AARP urges entitlement reform on broad issues, not deficit

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – AARP, the powerful lobbying group for older Americans, urged political leaders on Tuesday to pursue so-called entitlement reform as part of a wide-ranging discussion about healthcare costs and retirement security rather than as a narrower deal on deficit reduction. Laying out their agenda in the run-up to an intensive new fiscal debate on Capitol Hill, AARP executives portrayed the leading U.S. social spending programs – Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid – as necessary supports for what the group described as a declining middle class. …