Bush accused of playing shell game over AIDS funding

President Bush in his final State of the Union address called for an additional $30 billion over the next five years to fight HIV/AIDS in Africa -- an amount AIDS activists say is less than he has already pledged and far less than what is needed. "Our Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief is treating 1.4 million people. We can bring healing and hope to many more. So I ask you to maintain the principles that have changed behavior and made this program a success. And I call on you to double our initial commitment to fighting HIV/AIDS by approving an additional $30 billion over the next five years," Bush told the joint session of the House and Senate on Jan. 28. But New York's Gay Men's Health Crisis, one of the biggest HIV/AIDS organizations in the country, said Tuesday that that Bush's commitment actually is $30 billion less than Bush has committed to the G-8 and at the United Nations. Additionally the State of the Union provided for no new spending announcement to fight AIDS domestically. GMHC said that $59 billion is needed if the US is going to stand by its commitments to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief known as PEPFAR. "It is unconscionable that the President would seek to under-fund at the current level, especially at this moment time," said Marjorie J. Hill, Chief Executive Officer of Gay Men's Health Crisis. "Just when new treatments are radically changing life chances for people with HIV, under-funding will effectively slam the door on millions of others. In contrast to the 2003 PEPFAR authorization, when the US pledged to provide treatment to two million people in fifteen countries by the end of fiscal year 2008, the president's current proposal would extent treatment to only half a million additional people over the next five years Hill said. "This represents an alarming abandonment of PEPFARs goals and of the administrations promises to the international community," said Hill. Advocates say they will now turn to Congress to ensure full funding for PEPFAR. Congresswoman Barbara Lee (D-CA) was critical for the lack of any mention of domestic HIV/AIDS spending in the State of the Union. "Even more incomprehensible, President Bush has flat-lined funding for the Minority AIDS Initiative and our domestic HIV/AIDS programs, even as data shows communities of color are increasingly bearing the brunt of the disease," said Lee. "Over 188,000 African-Americans were living with AIDS at the end of 2005, representing 44 percent of all cases in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the nation's largest non-profit HIV/AIDS healthcare, research, prevention and education provider, also criticized the President for not mentioning new domestic HIV/AIDS funding. "AHF was saddened to see President Bush miss an opportunity tonight to take a real leadership position in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the US," said Whitney Engeran, III, Director of AIDS Healthcare Foundation's Public Health Division. "The CDC has not yet publicly released its newest US HIV numbers, but AIDS researchers, medical providers and advocates nationwide are expecting these latest numbers to show an alarming 35% to 50% increase in US HIV rates -- between 54,000 to 60,000 new infections identified annually." According to CDC officials, that data is currently under "peer review" and will not be officially released to the public until later this year. "The delay in providing the information closed the door on an opportunity to halt this trend, as the President did not confront the challenge in his address, nor is the necessary increased funding for stepped up HIV prevention and testing in the domestic fight against AIDS in his Administration's 2008 budget," said Engeran.