{"id":20,"date":"2005-01-31T01:13:38","date_gmt":"2005-01-31T06:13:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.law.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/2005\/01\/31\/us-fails-to-fulfill-its-promises-"},"modified":"2005-01-31T01:13:38","modified_gmt":"2005-01-31T06:13:38","slug":"us-fails-to-fulfill-its-promises-to-fight-hivaids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/2005\/01\/31\/us-fails-to-fulfill-its-promises-to-fight-hivaids\/","title":{"rendered":"US fails to fulfill its promises to fight HIV\/AIDS"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a><\/p>\n

From the New York Times<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Three years ago, President Bush created the Millennium Challenge
\nAccount to give more money to poor countries that are committed to
\npolicies promoting development. Mr. Bush said his government would
\ndonate billions in incremental stages until the program got to a high
\nof $5 billion a year starting in 2006. While $5 billion is just 0.04
\npercent of America’s national income, President Bush touted the
\nproposal as proof that he cares about poverty in Africa and elsewhere.
\n“I carry this commitment in my soul,” the president said. <\/p>\n

For
\nthe third straight year, Mr. Bush has committed a lot less than he
\npromised. Michael Phillips of The Wall Street Journal reports that the
\nWhite House has quietly informed the managers of the Millennium
\nChallenge Account to expect about $3 billion in the next budget. This
\nfollows a sad pattern. Mr. Bush said he would ask Congress for $1.7
\nbillion in 2004; he asked for $1.3 billion and got $1 billion. He said
\nhe would ask for $3.3 billion in 2005; he asked for $2.5 billion and
\ngot $1.5 billion. <\/p>\n

So if past is prologue, the Republican Congress will cut the diluted 2006 pledge even further. <\/p>\n

None
\nof that appears to bother the Bush administration, which continues to
\nsend high-ranking officials into the world to promote the anemic
\nMillennium Challenge Account to poor nations. The program – not the
\nmoney, since the account has yet to pay out a single dollar – is high
\non the list of talking points for cabinet officials like the United
\nStates trade representative, Robert Zoellick, who visited Africa in
\nDecember and cited the program every chance he got. Speaking to Latin
\nAmerican ambassadors in Washington this month, a Treasury under
\nsecretary, John Taylor, hailed it as a “major way in which we are
\nworking with countries to meet the challenge of increasing productivity
\ngrowth.” <\/p>\n

Officials at the Millennium Challenge Account are
\nquick to list the countries that, through good governance, have
\nqualified for the aid program. They are not as quick to list the
\ncountries that have received a dime: there aren’t any. Still, Paul
\nApplegarth, chief executive of the Millennium Challenge Corporation,
\nassured us last week that President Bush’s program is “really moving at
\nan extraordinarily quick pace.”<\/p>\n

Maybe the administration should
\ntell that to the 300 million Africans who lack safe drinking water, or
\nthe 3,000 African children under the age of 5 who die every day from
\nmalaria, or the 1 in 16 African women who die in childbirth, or the
\n6,000 Africans who die each day of AIDS. But wait. Maybe the president
\nis planning to deal with the African AIDS catastrophe through his 2003
\nproposal to increase AIDS funds by $10 billion over the following five
\nyears?<\/p>\n

Not unless he is planning to finish with a bang, because
\nthe White House is expected to ask Congress for only $1.6 billion more
\nnext year. When added to the amount that AIDS funds increased in 2004
\nand 2005, that would leave a whopping more than $6 billion to get out
\nof Congress in the next two years to meet Mr. Bush’s pledge. Congress
\nand Mr. Bush will point to the ballooning deficit and say they don’t
\nhave the money. But that was a matter of choice. They chose to spend
\nbillions on tax cuts for the wealthy and the war in Iraq. They can
\nchoose to spend it instead to keep America’s promises.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the New York Times: Three years ago, President Bush created the Millennium Challenge Account to give more money to poor countries that are committed to policies promoting development. Mr. Bush said his government would donate billions in incremental stages until the program got to a high of $5 billion a year starting in 2006. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":709,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1107],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-and-policy"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/709"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.blogs.harvard.edu\/politicshiv\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}