Conservative Babylon

“Ryan Voted for Increasing AIDS Prevention Funding. On May 1, 2003, Ryan voted for a bill that would authorize $3 billion annually over the next five years to prevent and treat HIV and AIDS in Africa. According to the Lincoln Journal Star, the bill would ‘bring funding for AIDS and other infectious diseases in 2004 up to the $3 billion level authorized in HR 1298,including a $1 billion contribution for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. Current funding in Senate spending bills for next year stands at about $2 billion, with just $400 million for the Global Fund.’ [Roll Call 158, H 1298,05/01/2003; Lincoln Star Journal 10/11/2003]“

“Ryan Voted Against Funding for Global HIV/AIDS Program. In 2008, Ryan voted against a bill that would reauthorize funding for the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The bill would reauthorize PEPFAR for $48 billion from fiscal year 2009 through fiscal year 2013, including $2 billion in fiscal year 2009 for the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. The bill would also set aside $5 billion for malaria and $4 billion for tuberculosis. Additionally, the bill would repeal a ban on HIV-positive visitors to the United States and overturn an existing law requiring that one-third of the money for HIV prevention be spent on abstinence education. The bill would also include new linkages between AIDS and nutrition programs. The bill passed 303-115. [Roll Call 531, H 5501, 07/24/2008; CQ Today, 7/24/08; CQ Today, 7/24/08]“

It’s worth noting that PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief) was introduced and signed by George W. Bush — not Barack Obama, or anybody else the Right hates, but somebody who is essentially Paul Ryan’s ideological equal. PEPFAR is not perfect — the initial commitment of $15 billion (over five years) to fight AIDS in Africa really amounted to more like $5 billion, and one of the insane conditions of the pledge was that one-third of the total had to be funneled into abstinence-only programs (which simply do not work, in any country) — but PEPFAR was (and is) still an impressive first step in the war on the scourge disease, on the continent hit hardest by it.

You can call us here at ConBab hypocrites for one reason or another (your writer, for example, lurrrves a good pan o’ fried chicken, but could never kill and eat a pet chicken), but nobody can ever say we don’t give credit where credit is due: PEPFAR was one of the only two good things Dumbya ever did in office. (The other was lifting the ban on HIV-positive travelers to the U.S.) Well, okay, maybe he did three good things — he did leave office, eventually.

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