when will people realize that these are nothing but outright lies--
bush does NOT say what he means!!
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1119-08.htmPublished on Friday, November 19, 2004 by the San Francisco Chronicle
AIDS Fund Payment Slashed
U.S. to Contribute $200 Million Less than it did Last Year
by Sabin Russell
The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, started three years ago with hopes of raising $10 billion a year to combat disease in the developing world, today finds itself short of its goals and on the defensive with its largest patron, the Bush administration.
At a meeting Thursday in Tanzania, Global Fund backers fended off what they contend was a bid by the United States to postpone a new round of grants by the fund in 2005.
In an apparent compromise reached at the meeting, the fund's board unanimously approved a plan to provide up to $1 billion for new grants in 2005. The money for the programs would not start flowing until September, three months later than advocates had hoped.
It was a victory for those who feared a total cutoff of new funds next year -- yet disappointing for those who had higher expectations for the Global Fund. The organization to date has raised $3 billion in three years, far short of the goal set by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan when he first envisioned the Geneva-based organization.
The Bush administration has cited as evidence of its support the fact that U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson is chairman of the fund. But even as Thompson was announcing from Tanzania that new grants would be offered next year, Congress was reducing the amount the United States would allot to the international organization.