Clinton, Schumer, Obama JOIN TO FREEZE AIDS Treatment And Care

[Jcrowley]

An Urgent DIRELAND Alert: CLINTON, SCHUMER, OBAMA JOIN TO FREEZE AIDS TREATMENT AND CARE

The Senate is about to freeze AIDS treatment and care for another year with a reauthorization bill for the Ryan White Act, introduced tonight by Senator Frank Lautenberg (D-NJ) and co-sponsored by Senators Clinton and Schumer, Senators Menendez (D-NJ), Obama (D-IL), Durbin (D-IL), and Nelson (D-FL). This noxious bill, as it now stands, would turn back the clock on the Ryan White Act.

Write your Senators today-- tell them this bill must be amended to meet the life-or-death needs of people with AIDS. And here are Talking Points, courtesy of Housing Works, the feisty AIDS service organization whose work I much admire:

For too long, people living with HIV/AIDS and frontline AIDS service providers have all made do with hopelessly inadequate funding. As of last week, nearly 200 people were on the wait list for drugs in South Carolina. Meanwhile, in New York, the over 125,000 people living with HIV/AIDS stand to loose $78 million in Title II funding over the next four years under the current Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 (the bill to reauthorize Ryan White).

The "new" Ryan White cuts funding relied on by PLWAs, primarily in the original epicenters of AIDS. The "old" Ryan White shortchanges people newly infected, primarily living in rural areas and the Deep South. This geographic splitting is partisan politics at play. We will not sacrifice people living with HIV/AIDS anywhere in the country to bolster anyone's ratings at the polls this November.

http://direland.typepad.com/direland/2006/09/an_urgent_direl.html

What's Up With This?

[MannyGoldstein]

1. The Perfect Bill For DLCers

They can tell one group that they voted for money for AIDS treatment, and tell another that they cut wasteful spending.

A beautiful thing.

Mmmmm.... Golsen Triangle... so shiny...

[silverweb]

2. It's all about distribution of funds.

At least that's my understanding. These senators don't want to freeze the funding, but they are waging a battle against how the new bill would allocate funds.

I won't pretend to understand all the details of the new legislation because I don't. But I do trust these Democratic senators' reasons for fighting it.

[Jcrowley]

3. That's odd

that you would trust someone based on your lack of knowledge about that which they are voting on. Democracy is about NOT trusting these people who hold the levers of power and holding their feet to the fire based on your knowledge og the issues. They're counting on our lack of understanding and placing blind faith in the fact that "they know what's best for us" that is called oligarchy not democracy.

Learn more here:
http://www.housingworks.org/home_f.html

1. EXPAND FUNDING BY $500M TO ENSURE ACCESS TO CARE NATIONWIDE

Stop playing regional politics and get the money we need to care for all Americans living with HIV/AIDS into this bill. We need a total of $500 million in additional funding to eliminate ADAP waiting lists, support areas with emerging epidemics, and protect access and quality in high-prevalence areas. This includes a $70 million increase for Title II base and an additional $197 million for ADAP - the amount identified by treatment experts as needed to allow all states to provide a minimum level of service to those in need.

[silverweb]

7. I can't keep up with everything in detail.

At some point, I have to look at the records and reputations of the senators involved and decide whether or not to trust them on certain issues.

Especially on a health-related issue, I trust this particular group of senators to know whether a piece of legislation is good or bad.

Isn't that what representative democracy is all about?

[Jcrowley]

8. Suppose to be

but the folks in the beltway left the likes of you and I behind long ago, well at least me, I'm poor and I know corporations run this country and that is who the DLCers represent and/or are controlled by. It's easy to find out the veracity of this statement, Follow The Money and you'll see a direct correspondence with the voting record.

[OKNancy]

4. Story from 365gay site

full story here: http://www.365gay.com/Newscon06/09/092706white.htm

Money Fight Ties Up Ryan White Act In Senate
by The Associated Press

September 27, 2006 - 11:00 am ET


(Washington) A bill that would shift millions of dollars for AIDS care to rural areas is being held up in the Senate by Democrats from California, New York and New Jersey, whose states would lose out.

The objections threaten to stall passage of the $2.1 billion Ryan White CARE Act before Congress wraps up work this week ahead of the Nov. 7 midterm elections.

The law, originally passed in 1990, sends money to state and local programs for the neediest patients. A rewrite that has passed House and Senate committees would funnel more money to rural and southern states where AIDS is spreading, but less money to larger states and urban areas that traditionally have been at the front line of the epidemic.

snip

Opponents in the House and Senate offered alternate legislation Tuesday that would extend the existing law for a year to allow more negotiations to take place. But the holdouts were getting pressure from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, top Democrat on the health committee, who supports the rewritten bill.

[Jcrowley]

5. thanks- Here's more from link

"For too long, people living with HIV/AIDS and frontline AIDS service providers have all made do with hopelessly inadequate funding. As of last week, nearly 200 people were on the wait list for drugs in South Carolina. Meanwhile, in New York, the over 125,000 people living with HIV/AIDS stand to loose $78 million in Title II funding over the next four years under the current Ryan White HIV/AIDS Treatment Modernization Act of 2006 (the bill to reauthorize Ryan White)."

"The "new" Ryan White cuts funding relied on by PLWAs, primarily in the original epicenters of AIDS. The "old" Ryan White shortchanges people newly infected, primarily living in rural areas and the Deep South. This geographic splitting is partisan politics at play. We will not sacrifice people living with HIV/AIDS anywhere in the country to bolster anyone's ratings at the polls this November."

[wiley]

6. Glad to see Democrats call Republicans on their crap. It's a BAD bill

and Senators Clinton, Schumer, Menendez, Lautenberg, Obama, Nelson, Durbin should be given the Standing on Principle Award and not compromising on yet another really insulting, impotent and malicious attempt to gut health care services and funding to people in this country.

The currently proposed legislation that these Democratic heroes oppose is yet another year of not funding the real needs of people in this country. Indeed, Senator Kennedy, whose initial attempts to compromise and at least get something decent out of this Congress have led to the typical Republican response - lull Democrats into doing something to help people throughout the country, refuse amendments that would make the bill acceptable, then pit red states against blue states, poor and ill people all desperate for basic primary care and support against each other for what can only be described as a huge cut in funding - of creating a loser's bill that doles out money to those who supported the Republican Party and their candidates. It's the Medicare Prescription Drug ACT playbook all over again.

That Housing Works post is old but the amendments, as well as additional ones, would make a good bill. The current bill will not be voted on until after the November elections. Time to get the ahole Republicans who would yet again try to allocate less than the amount it costs to be in Iraq for 12 hours out of office so we can fix the Medicare bill, restore Medicaid cuts, protect Social Security, increase the number of individuals with health care coverage, and put forward Ryan White Care Act legislation that doesn't call for splitting a baby in half to address the needs of the people of this country.

Passing the bill in its' current state, unamended, is like letting the Republicans appoint another Supreme Court justice - it will be in place for five years. Before it can be fixed, decades of work and care will be lost, as will the lives of many people.