Bush Accused Of Playing Shell Game Over AIDS Funding

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 Monday night.

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 U.S. 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.

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