Plenty of stories about Obama getting heckled by AIDS protesters, and how Obama responded, but most of the stories, including one in Politico, fail to address the substance of the issue. What about AIDS funding?
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1010/44428.htmlhttp://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Morning-Vid-Obama-Scolds-AIDS-Funding-Hecklers-5586http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/30/obama-heckled-by-aids-protesters/?partner=rss&emc=rsshttp://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/news/126663-obama-fires-back-at-aids-protesters-tells-them-to-hassle-gopBen Smith's blog entry questions Obama on his facts, and prints a response from the Administration.
http://www.politico.com/blogs/bensmith/1010/Funding_AIDS.html
President Obama told hecklers today, “We're funding global AIDS, and the other side is not.”
That's a very tough claim to support. President Bush made the fight against global AIDS a serious priority and a rare area of cooperation with Democrats and praise from the left.
And AIDS activists, meanwhile, are furious at Obama for slowing down a promised increase in AIDS funding.
Details here.
UPDATE: An Administration official explains Obama's argument:
The budget plans of the “other side” – i.e. the Boehner plan of a 20 percent across the board cut – would mean a more than $1.3 billion cut to our global HIV/AIDS programs. The President, on the other hand, put forward increases for PEPFAR in both his FY 2010 and FY 2011 budgets. In fact, the FY 2011 request is the largest request to date in a President’s Budget, and the program is slated to increase in the years ahead. Moreover, the $63 billion Global Health Initiative is new, integrated approach to HIV/AIDS and other diseases that – based on lives saved and lengthened – will have a huge impact.
Your point about the activist community’s view accurately characterizes how they see it, but let’s put it in context: the President instituted a three-year freeze on non-security discretionary spending, yet still went forward with this funding.