Posted on 01/29/2003 7:57:13 AM PST by TLBSHOW
Bush Asks for $15 Billion to Fight AIDS in Africa
By Maggie Fox, Health and Science Correspondent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush, under fire from AIDS groups for what they call his neglect of the epidemic, asked Congress Tuesday to triple AIDS spending in Africa and Haiti to $15 billion over five years.
The announcement, made in his annual State of the Union Address, took AIDS campaigners by surprise, but they quickly both welcomed the plan and expressed skepticism about it.
"I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean," Bush said.
"This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS and for children orphaned by AIDS," Bush added.
On its Internet web site at http://www.whitehouse.gov, the White House said the plan would target Botswana, Ivory Coast, Ethiopia, Guyana, Haiti, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
It said the plan calls for the United States to work with private groups and governments to "put in place a comprehensive plan for diagnosing, preventing and treating AIDS."
Stephen Lewis, the United Nations special envoy for HIV/AIDS in Africa, welcomed what he called "the first dramatic signal from the U.S. administration that it is now ready to confront the pandemic and to save or prolong millions of lives."
"It opens the floodgates of hope. Most importantly, it issues a challenge to every other member of the G7 to follow suit," he said in South Africa after a tour of the region.
The Physicians for Human Rights, which campaigns on a range of issues from land mines to HIV, last week urged Bush to increase global AIDS spending to $3.5 billion a year.
"This is totally unexpected," John Heffernan, a spokesman for the group, said in a telephone interview. "We applaud it. It really is an extraordinary commitment that clearly shows that the United States is serious about combating AIDS."
The Global AIDS Alliance welcomed the news but worried that the Bush administration could be competing with existing AIDS funds, such as the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The United States has been accused of not putting its fair share into the Fund.
"In the (White House) fact sheet it said only $1 billion of the 10 billion in new money will go to the Global Fund," said Dr. Paul Zeitz, Executive Director of the Global AIDS Alliance. "We are very concerned that will leave the fund vastly underfunded and undermine its success."
A SLOW START?
Zeitz also said it looked like the program would start out slowly, with just $2 billion allocated for next year.
The International Association for Physicians in AIDS Care said it would closely watch what would be done with the money, if Congress approved it. "The devil is in the details," said Scott Wolfe, a spokesman for the group. But he also strongly welcomed the move, adding, "We call on other global leaders to step up and demonstrate similar commitments."
More than 36 million people are infected with the virus that causes AIDS -- 25 million in Africa alone. The United Nations predicts AIDS will kill 70 million people in the next 20 years unless rich nations step up efforts.
Bush noted this. "There are whole countries in Africa where more than one-third of the adult population carries the infection," he said. "More than 4 million require immediate drug treatment. Yet across that continent, only 50,000 AIDS victims -- only 50,000 -- are receiving the medicine they need."
There is no cure for AIDS but a cocktail of expensive drugs known as anti-retrovirals can keep disease at bay. Campaigners have been angered that such drugs are available in rich nations but not to the countries hardest hit by the epidemic.
"AIDS can be prevented," Bush said. "Anti-retroviral drugs can extend life for many years. And the cost of those drugs has dropped from $12,000 a year to under $300 a year, which places a tremendous possibility within our grasp."
The new Senate majority leader, Tennessee Republican Bill Frist, nodded and smiled as Bush spoke. Frist, a medical doctor, does frequent volunteer work in Africa.
"It's unprecedented. It is huge. And of everything he said tonight, it has the capacity to save more lives in this country I would say, but also globally, than anything else said," Frist told CNN.
This is far from what I think of Conservatives and the vast majority of Freepers. It sounds more like what a Liberal would come up with.
Why thank you. With konservatives like some of these folks, who needs liberal, socialist, leftist?
The Constitution was created and torturously negotiated to provide a stable and enduring framework to protect individuals from State excess and the majority whim of the day. The processes, however, were constructed to account for evolving community needs, priorities and circumstances that the framers understood could never be anticipated in their late 18th century world. The elegant and meticulously debated set of institutional protections, safeguards and balances woven into the Constitution were designed with the understanding that any document that only addressed the realities and priorities of 1785 would be anachronistic immediately upon passage.
Bizarre view that I have never encountered before, directly at odds with almost ALL constitutional writings worthy of note.
The beauty of the Constitution is that it was designed EXPRESSLY to process, manage and guard from excess a Federal Government response to an evolving world and its challenges. Continental Congressmen were humble and wise, they understood that they could never anticipate and address every contingent and evolving challenge that would face a future American society and citizenry. They built in an upgrade path. They operated on a little higher plateau of Maslow's pyramid than you do, tpaine. Thank God.
Maslow is your constitutional authority? I could only find this quote from him on the subject:
` "We can consider the Bill of Rights as a precious document on the psychological side, that is, as a psychological document, as a strategy and tactic of brotherly love. The Constitution, the Bill of Rights, and other documents of that kind are--let us say it, why not--the technology of agapean love."
Agapean love? Hmmmmmm
If you don't want to pitch in to protect the lives and communities of the American group, then get the eff out of the way please. You and your ilk have no scintilla of the courage, character and commitment the founders had.
Flag wrapping becomes your style arnie, I'll grant that.
Madison, Washington, Clinton, Adams et al would hold the Libertarian debate society here on FR with the same disdain and contempt most of us here do.
Clinton?
Mewlings about the unonstitutionality of Foreign Aid is just playing with yourself. I see the countenance of Bush, Blair, Rumsfeld, Powell, Rice, Ashcroft, Ridge and Cheney. These people aren't screwing around, this is heavy shit we're in right now.
More flag waving, in place of logical argument.
I'm in a "what can I do?" mode, because I know this is life and death vital. We're under attack. We're gonna take out the garbage, God willing. You just keep mumbling in the corner.
Whatever arnie. Please imagine that you've made some point.
Conservatives didn't look at the mass murder of our brothers and sisters on September 11 and see that event as the start of a fight to the death between the American government and ... its citizens.
Only the insufferable preecks around here did. And, continue to do so. You keep an eye on those Mexicans, Joe, they're the threat right now. The M.O. is too close .... those 19 acne-ridden 25 year old sexually-retarded sons of Allah who killed our kin worked backbreaking landscaping jobs 60 hours a week before their murderous rampages too.
Keep an eye on Univision, Joe. I have a bad feeling that Gigante Sabudo is sending out orders to Construction Crew Azatlan sleeper cells via coded Salsa dancing, disturbing comedy farces and co-ordinated breast augmentations and midriff showcasing.
Don't ever lay on the beach, tpaine, every cat within miles will converge through a primal instinct to bury you.
Uh sure Fufkin, right :o
Anyway, just run along to the congo to save the world with your life savings. And when it runs out, don't call back and ask for more. Just use what you have and save the world fufkin......
Bush and Blair are playing Kasparov/Karpv chess. You're the chimp sitting boardside. Apish Tickles is fixed on every move of the pieces ... yet he understands nothing. Therefore, the solution is to screech, grab the board, send all the pieces flying and start slinging feces like a mofo.
I love it when you liberal east coast konservatives use such language. It's so, so weird and strange.
In any event, call us when you get to the Congo Fufkin. Let us know how saving the world is going.
Did I tell you I love that funny eastern name? Fufkin! Hehehe...I just love it.
Well, Joe, I need to thank you. If I knew Minnesota was on eastern standard time I wouldn't have missed the start of "Joe Millionaire" all these weeks.
I've missed them all, but I think Mojo is a bitch anyway.
I love heading south to Iowa every now and then to grab the trawler and traps and make all lobsters my smackdown beyatches. Then, it's a manicure and hooker rubdown before the party with all those Manhattan supermodels and Kennedy heirs at their East St. Louis weekend estates.
It's good to be a dashing rogue styling mad in the East.
You're like that "Wrong Way Feldon" guy from Gilligans Island. Jerry Reed relates. He's going from deep Dixie to LA ... via Omaha.
But I guess it don't matter fufkin. Anyone that uses phrases like "Apish Tickles" may as well be in the Congo saving the world.
Go get um Fufkin. Oh, and take your "Apish tickles with you..... LOL! That will at least impress any French that happen to be there, saving the world.
You're like that "Wrong Way Feldon" guy from Gilligans Island
Poor Arne Fufkin, stuck in Minnesota freezing your hinne off, with nothing do do but watch TV and dream about going to the Congo to save the world.
At least when you get to the congo, you will be a tad bit warmer.
Take care Arne "Apish Tickles" Fufkin.
Good night sweetheart.
The United Nations Secretary-General, Kofi Annan, today welcomed the announcement by United States President George W. Bush of a total of $15 billion in funding to help in the global fight against HIV/AIDS.
Nighty nite sweetpea.
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