‘Tweaks’ to Draconian Health Funding Cuts Are Still Deadly, Monstrous
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following concerns by some Republicans over Donald Trump’s draconian funding cuts to the global fight against AIDS, the White House is now reportedly offering “tweaks” to preserve some AIDS prevention programs, as well as saying it will maintain life-saving treatments under the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). The move is part of an effort by the administration to shore up support for their rescissions package, which is due for a vote this week.
In response to this move, Public Citizen co-president Robert Weissman issued the following statement:
“Tweaks won’t fix this horrific proposal. Rescission would bless Trump’s illegal taking of power from Congress and his unconstitutional obliteration of foreign aid. The only way to actually fix it is to repeal these mindless funding cuts entirely.
“HIV prevention is critically important. New technologies like long-acting PrEP can help end AIDS if they are appropriately funded, saving millions of lives and orders of magnitude more money than these thoughtless funding cuts could ever save.
“But HIV doesn’t exist in a vacuum. The rescission proposal – and other, illegal program cancellations by the Trump administration – undermine global health broadly. The rescission proposal would, for example, slash U.S. support for UNICEF, which nourishes children in conflict zones, fights dangerous disease outbreaks and brings education to children in remote regions. Trump wants to sanction a $142 million cut to UNICEF through rescission, endangering those children’s lives. In no universe does this make America stronger.
“Trump’s foreign assistance cuts will save no more than a rounding error, but cost America its credibility, and cost hundreds of thousands of people, at least, their very lives.
“Proposed cuts for public media in the rescission package, similarly, will save tiny amounts of the federal budget only at the great expense of the American people, especially Americans living in rural communities, who rely on and benefit from public broadcasting for things like amber alerts, school snow days, tornado warnings, and more.
“And no adjustment to the rescission package can change the fact that it threatens to blow up the annual appropriations process. Why should appropriators ever negotiate and come to an agreement on federal funding if the president and one party alone can unilaterally abrogate the deal?”