America’s better angels seen in global AIDS bill

It was the right thing to do. And if, by chance, it results in America’s reputation getting a boost around the world, so much the better.

But the $48 billion global AIDS bill passed by a bipartisan vote in Congress and signed into law by President Bush isn’t about public relations. It’s about our nation’s humanity, that which sets us apart from most others. As we’ve shown time and time again, we care about the downtrodden, about children dying of diseases for which there are cures, about the poor falling through the cracks.

That’s what the $48 billion will be used for: the fight against AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis around the world.

President Bush, who will be leaving office in January, can legitimately claim this war against preventable deaths as his lasting legacy. He first proposed the fight against AIDS in his 2003 State of the Union address, and since then has been unyielding in his push for adequate funding from Congress.

To his credit, Bush recognized that other diseases such as malaria and tuberculosis are also major impediments to the economic growth of underdeveloped nations. When millions of people, especially children, are dying, the future become even more bleak that it is now.

The President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief and the other initiatives have been credited with saving or prolonging millions of lives in Africa alone.

Anti-retroviral drugs

The current act, which earmarked $15 billion for lifesaving anti-retroviral drugs, expires in September. The new bill will be in place until 2013 and approves spending up to $2 billion next year for the International Global Fund to Fight AIDS. The measure sets aside $5 billion for malaria and $4 billion for tuberculosis, the leading cause of death for people with AIDS.

Congress also earmarked $2 billion, on top of the $48 billion, for American Indian water, health and law enforcement programs.

The president’s initiative has not only focused on nations in sub-Saharan Africa devastated by AIDS, but has provided assistance in the Caribbean and other areas hit by the pandemic. Some 33 million people are affected worldwide.

Despite the efforts by the United States and other Group of Eight industrialized nations, some 7,000 new HIV inflections are recorded every day around the world.

In the words of Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the top Republican on the Foreign Affairs Committee, the pandemic “is leaving a trail of poverty, despondency and death which has destabilized societies and undermines the security of the entire region.”

Americans who question the expenditure of such a large amount of money at a time of record budget deficits and a rising national debt should not ignore the fact that nations in throes of death and destruction are easy prey for terrorist organizations that have vowed to bring down the United States.

But beyond the geopolitical considerations, the most powerful nation in the world cannot sit idly by while millions of poverty-ridden people in Africa and other underdeveloped countries perish because of a lack of medicine and preventative care.

The bipartisan support in the Democratic controlled Congress, and the unwavering commitment of Republican President Bush to end this scourge are a testament to America’s kinder, gentler self.