A Deceiving Budget Proposal

By Joey Terrill
Public Policy Coordinator
AIDS Healthcare Foundation

For the fiscal year 2009 budget, President George W. Bush has announced an “increase” in the two main programs that are funded by the federal government, the AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) and the Ryan White CARE Act (RWCA). When combined the amount is $7 million. The ADAP is the program that provides lifesaving AIDS medicines to low-income individuals and is receiving a $6 million “increase” but when one factors in the costs of the automatic built-in Consumer Price Index (CPI) increases that benefit the pharmaceutical companies, ADAP is actually being cut by $27 million!

The meager $1 million “increase” for the RWCA, comes as the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is overdue in its releasing data that is widely-expected to show an alarming increase in HIV rates in the US—a rate believed to be between 35% to 50% higher than the previous CDC estimates of 40,000 new US HIV cases annually. Under the President’s FY 2008 budget, ADAP received an increase of $19 million, but the full cost of built in CPI increases would be $32 million, so ADAP is actually being cut $13 million in that budget!

As the need for AIDS prevention, care and treatment in the US, shows a marked increase, the Bush Administration is slashing critical funding from AIDS programming while lining the pockets of the pharmaceutical companies in a maneuver that amounts to corporate welfare. This is taking place at a time when more of RWCA resources need to be directed to smaller states with emerging epidemics. And as if that wasn’t irresponsible enough, the budget proposal increases funding for abstinence education programs that have no basis in scientific evidence. It’s a careless, extremely shortsighted public health policy that will have potentially deadly results for the citizens it’s supposed to help. Bush’s refusal to adequately support evidence-based prevention programs diminishes our country’s ability to monitor this still growing epidemic, as well as undermining the call to expand HIV screening to identify those who are already infected but unaware of their status, and the effort to prevent new infections through programs directed to high-risk populations.
Taken together, the budget proposals of this president will result in dire consequences for the country, disabling the nation’s ability to continue the fight against HIV/AIDS long after he is gone from the White House. Call your representatives… it’s a deadly legacy we can’t afford.