News

The Bush Record on HIV/AIDS

October 11, 2000

(WASHINGTON, DC) – A George W. Bush administration has publicly committed to work hard to prevent the spread of AIDS, both in the U.S. and around the world.

But Gay Democrats have charged that Governor Bush would slash AIDS programs and that "death and dying in Africa and the US would accelerate" under Bush.

This charge against Governor Bush is completely false. Here are the facts.

• Total funding (from state and from GOP Congress' appropriations) for HIV medications and education increased from $39.8 million in FY 1994 to $87.9 million in 2000, an increase of about $48 million, or 120.6%.
  
  
• State general revenue (TX alone) funding for HIV medications and education increased from $19.0 million in FY 1994 to $25.3 million in FY 2000, an increase of $6.3 million or 33.2%.
  
  
• Under Governor Bush, Texas is providing necessary state matching funds to ensure receipt of all available federal funds appropriated by the GOP Congress for HIV/AIDS.
  
  
• In the patient protection legislation signed by Governor Bush, he ensured that people with chronic, disabling or life-threatening illness like HIV/AIDS are able to request that a specialty physician be their primary care doctor.
  
  
• As in many states across the nation with Republican governors, AIDS deaths have declined dramatically in Texas under Governor Bush's leadership.
  
  
• Governor Bush recognizes the continuing (and vital) need for a public-private partnership in the fight HIV/AIDS, especially if we will continue to cut the national death rate. Unlike Al Gore who attacks private industry and fails to deliver adequate federal budget numbers for AIDS treatment every year, Governor Bush supports private and public research and development on drugs to combat AIDS.
  
  
• Governor Bush strongly supports the National Institutes of Health in continued AIDS research programs, which have been funded by the GOP Congress at amounts higher than the Clinton-Gore budget requests.
  
  
• Governor Bush strongly supports a permanent extension of the research & development (R&D) tax credit to increase private research into new treatments and an eventual cure for HIV/AIDS.
  
  
• Governor Bush strongly supports the Ryan White CARE Act so that states and cities can adequately respond to those with AIDS, which has been funded by the GOP Congress by hundreds of millions of dollars more than the inadequate Clinton-Gore budget requests over the last five years.
  
  
• Governor Bush recognizes that the AIDS crisis in Africa goes far beyond pricing, and involves a fundamental problem of the lack of a health care delivery infrastructure in African nations most seriously affected by AIDS. This is an international problem, needing an international solution.