[weikel]

More money being pissed away.

[Celtjew Libertarian]

I thought it was interesting that, until he got to the part about Iraq, this was the part of the speech that the President was most intense and emotional about.

I'm sure Frist is on board. We'll see what happens.

[rabidralph]

I love it when the president's message catches his enemies off-guard and with their pants down (no pun intended). Yes, it's a big number, but now the rest of the nations that criticize the US will have to put in huge amounts of dough, too. Or do they expect the US to foot the entire bill for an epidemic that is not our fault?

[Geezerette]

But we don't have that kind of money to throw around the world! WE NEED IT HERE AT HOME!!

g

[Gunslingr3]

"I cannot undertake to lay my finger on that article of the Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents." - James Madison

He's buying votes, pure and simple...

[boomop1]

Keep the money out of the UN'S paws.

[waterstraat]

This 15 billion dollars is not going to get him any more republican votes, and it will not put potential republican voters back to work. It is a total waste on a disease that is totally preventable.

[Wurlitzer]

No way! Not one more red cent should be given to anyone to alleviate a self inflicted condition. If the UN is so friggen wonderful, let them fund it (without our dollars) we do enough.

[biblewonk]

My wife and I were pretty happy with everything he said until this came up. Then we were less thrilled.

[cynicom]

Lets see now, we are borrowing a billion a day to finance the government, so we give away 15 billion into the dark hole of Africa, so where is that money coming from???? Makes sense to me, borrow money to give away on a lost cause.

[Kevin Curry]

In an odd, indirect, but unusually effective way, this "pulls the sting" on Bush's very public denunciation of affirmative action. Democrat demogogues have been trying desperately to paint Bush out to be the sworn enemy of blacks, and he counters by offering to provide life-saving medicine to millions predominantly black sufferers of a terrible, terrible disease.

[PolishProud]

I'm tired of the U.S. trying to be all things to all people...and still no one likes us. Where's France? where's Germany? If they want to be players on the world stage, let them put up some money for HIV control. Unfortunately most of the bucks sent to Africa end up in the pockets of bureaucrats and despots.

[Lunatic Fringe]

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.

Yet, they applauded Clinton when he did nothing, because he "really cared."

[mikenola]

Where is the constituional authority to spend money on a problem like this? This is stretching the "general welfare" clause pretty far if you ask me. I also wonder if the victims were white, you'd see an initiative like this.

The AIDS epidemic is a natural consequence of overpopulation, as theorized by Thomas Malthus.

I'm not unsympathetic, but the best thing for us to do is let this epidemic run its course, and get the population back to a level the geography can support. Otherwise the chronic poverty in Africa will only persist.

Flame away....

[Mamzelle]

If we had a cure or a vaccine, I'd say go for it. As it is, what we have in treatment won't work in Africa. Looks like 15B would just end up in the hands of a few dictators, really.

[from occupied ga]

"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.

Where is the constitutional mandate to rob hard working Americans at gunpoint and waste their money in treating people who aren't even citizens of the USA. Bush is a bigger plunder and squander president than Slick Willie. 99% of my tax money today is pissed away on things that are abhorent to me now, and Bush is adding to the waste.

[nmh]

How come the voter who funds this stuff NEVER gets asked what they think? Why is it they just get the bill without even so much as a thank you?

The ONLY money the government has is what it gets from YOU!

[DoughtyOne]

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."

Here are my printable comments concerning this man, his comments and his organization. ""

There is an unnamed organization out there who claims to care more about humanity than any other.  It has a budget in excess of $100 billion dollars per year.  Despite this it couldn't find it's way to devote $15 billion to AIDS.

If the US funnels one dime of this money through the United Nations, it will exhibit the depths to which we have sunk as a nation.  If we're going to do this, we need to do it with people who are decked out in uniforms that identify them as citizens of the United States, delivering care from the citizens in the United States.

[Big Mack]

I don't believe that it is in the job discription ( the constitution) for our congress to give $15b to fight hiv/ aids in Africa. This action won't garner 1 queer vote (You still haven't spent enough to find a cure for aids so I can go on with my filthy lifestyle), nor one vote from the blacks (We don't care about those africian blacks, where is the govedrnment nipple to suck on while we figgure out how to get more welfare) Some time ago I read a story here about Davy Crockett when he was in congress about "It's not your money to spend!" We should send a copy to all elected people.

It is my uneducated opinion, that for the next five oar six elections, we should vote out each and every incumbent in every office from local dogcatcher to the top. Once all the "good ol' boys are gone we might begin to get citizen politions the way it was to be. We need to end the idea of a two party system. And, we need to return to the states the power to take care of their own people.

I scare myself as I think I'm starting to sound more like a libertarian than a republican.

[Hildy]

Just can't please some people.