Sunday, February 01, 2004

Fighting AIDS: Bush is more hat, less cattle

Bush Scaling Back Dollars for Third World
President Bush plans to scale back requests for money to fight AIDS and poverty in the third world, putting off for several years the fulfillment of his pledges to eventually spend more than $20 billion on these programs.

Hardest hit would be the United Nations-supported Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, whose contribution from the United States would drop to $200 million in fiscal year 2005 from $550 million, according to Congressional officials who have been briefed on the president's budget proposal.

I'm shocked, shocked, to hear that a grand promise will be broken. Were I less naive, I might suspect that the residual funds are earmarked for Bush campaign donors.

GWB's lack of integrity is not noteworthy. This is significant because GWB's actions constitute a major threat to our national security. If we don't control HIV in Africa our children will pay the price.

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