Taking From the Poor and Giving to the Rich

How slimy can House Republican Leader, Tom DeLay get? Just when you thought he's reached rock bottom, something new and exciting pops up. He's been taking money from NCPPR (National Center for Public Policy Research), a genuinely heinous organization that exploits elderly social security recipients.

A think tank which raised money by targeting elderly Americans with
Social Security scare letters paid for more than $130,000 in travel
expenses for the House Republican leader, his wife and his staff,
RAW STORY has learned.

And this is what some of the Social Security scare letters said:

“Inside your sealed envelope is information regarding the potential
collapse of the Social Security system – and how it can endanger you and
the entire United States senior citizen population,” NCPPR president Amy
Ridenour writes in one such letter obtained by RAW STORY (Read the
letter here). “It is also critical that you share this pertinent
information ONLY [sic] with other trustworthy individuals.”

And this is how some of the elderly people reacted when they received the mailings:

In 1998, The Examiner profiled an 86-year-old Oakland resident Faye
Shelby who had been deluged by direct mail scams seeking money on
issues including Social Security. The letters so distressed the
nursing home resident that she lay awake at night worrying about what
crisis most deserved her help.

“I didn’t know that I could just turn them down,” Shelby told the
Examiner. “I was thinking it was something I had to do. . . . I thought
if I didn’t correspond about Social Security, I wouldn’t get my checks.”

Robin Hood, Friar Tuck, Maid Marian, Little John and all the other happy creatures in Sherwood Forest would be appalled!