Budget ax threatens to halt successful program fighting AIDS in Africa
But a budget-slashing effort in Congress this year threatens to bring much of that progress to a sudden and catastrophic halt.
Michael Gerson, a conservative columnist with the Washington Post and a force behind an HBO special called The Lazarus Effect, is fighting hard to hold on to the funding that started with his boss, nearly a decade ago.
"There are good foreign policy reasons to do this," said Gerson, a senior fellow with the Council on Foreign Relations.
Gerson was also the chief speech writer for the man who got this rolling.
"He often talked about 'To whom much is given, much is required,' " said Gerson, of the sponsor of the plan. "There was a motivation here of what America should do and be; that we should be a source of hope but also a kind of conscience motivation here, very much rooted in his faith."
The "he" in question, was President George W. Bush.
In 2003, Bush started the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR -- an unprecedented, $3-billion a year program to help the world fight AIDS and has resulted in an 80-fold increase in the number of Africans receiving life-saving AIDS treatments since the program began.
In 2008, Bush led the charge for renewal and expansion. "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," Bush told Congress in his State of the Union address that year. "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."
He was not alone. A driving force in the effort was evangelical Christians who pushed the Bush administration and Congress to support it.
Source: http://rss.cnn.com/~r/rss/cnn_allpolitics/~3/3Qvo7NR2OwQ/index.html