McCain Original Sponsor of Obama's AIDs Bill

The more I hear about Obama's AIDS Bill, the more frustrated I become.  In this article from Accuracy in Media (AIM), I now find out that John McCain was the original author of the bill!  This is a perfect example of the continuing concern I have with McCain.  He thinks in "global" terms, thus, he focus is not on what is in the best interest of America, but what is in the best interest of the world.  Additionally, many of our Republican representatives now appear to be drifting leftward - in favor of this bill as well.

A bill that was 15 million when originally proposed is now in the neighborhood of 50-85 billion dollars - depending on where you take your figures from -  as the result of "Liberal Padding."  When will we the people decide enough is enough and tell our representatives that we will no longer tolerate them "padding" bills with meaningless and politically biased waste. 

The economic toll this bill will take on Americans during this time of economic uncertainty is another thing that we should be looking at closely.  According to AIM, Senator DeMint feels that

“Passing $50 billion in new spending at a time when our nation is deeply in debt is completely irresponsible,” DeMint declared. “We’re burying our kids and grand kids under a mountain of debt while we refuse to make tough decisions. American families are facing sky-high gas and food prices and have to sacrifice to make ends meet, but Congress just keeps spending and passing the bill on to someone else. It’s not right and it’s time for it to stop.”

While one of the main purposes of this bill was to put needed drugs for those with AIDS into their hands, it also appears to have some additional underlying purposes as well.  For instance, DeMint noted that

the bill funnels a large amount of money into a U.N.-affiliated agency that is complicit in the killing of unborn children in China.

He explained, “While the U.S. is by far the largest contributor to the United Nations Global Fund, sending over $2.5 billion to the organization since it began in 2001, it has not been subject to the Kemp-Kasten policy that prevents tax dollars from supporting forced abortions. The new PEPFAR bill greatly increases the U.S. commitment to the Global Fund with more than $10 billion over the next five years. At least two large Global Fund grants in 2004 and 2006, totaling over $70 million, were given to various Chinese agencies including the National Population and Family Planning Commission (NPFPC), the organization tasked with implementing China’s ‘one-child-per-family’ policy.”

Under that policy, women are forced to undergo abortions if they are pregnant with a second child.

Furthermore, there is no American independent oversight as to how the money is spent once in the Global Fund.  So in essence, we are handing over millions of dollars without any idea of where it will ultimately end up.  According to John Donnelly of the Boston Globe

who blew the whistle on how the U.N. has greatly exaggerated the number of AIDS cases around the world, [he] has reported that the Global Fund’s former Executive Director Richard G. A. Feachem was found to have made extensive use of a little-known private bank account, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on limousines, expensive meals, boat cruises, and other expenses.”

 According to Senator Vitter of Louisiana

“I still believe this legislation goes way beyond the original scope of the president’s first global AIDS bill, and, worse, there appear to be many troubling policies woven into it that a small, committed group of senators have tried to fight,” said Vitter. “At the very least, I hope that my amendment, which would set up a U.S. Inspector General for the Global Fund, will be included. Since $10 billion of our taxpayer dollars will be going to the fund over the next five years, I believe the American people deserve to know what that money is being used for and whether it is being used effectively. The International Global Fund has a long record of waste and corruption and a short one for accountability. We need much greater oversight, and my amendment will help provide that.”

 Interestingly, one segment of the American population strongly supports the bill as is - the homosexual community. According to AIM

homosexual groups have been strong supporters of the bill, in particular the provision lifting the ban on AIDS-infected aliens. The main group pushing for the entry into the U.S. of those infected with HIV/AIDS is Immigration Equality, which receives funds from the Open Society Institute of George Soros, the Ford Foundation, and other liberal and left-wing donors.

The pressure is so intense that Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council was forced to apologize for saying during an interview that he would “much prefer to export homosexuals from the United States than import them into the United States because we believe homosexuality is destructive to American society.” These remarks were deemed objectionable by the homosexual rights lobby.

On the other hand, the Immigration Equality organization recently gave one of its “Safe Haven” awards to Andrew Sullivan, an HIV-positive homosexual journalist in the U.S. who was born and raised in England and insisted that HIV “improved my sex life.” Sullivan, a popular figure in the liberal media, is advertised as a “gay conservative” but was exposed for soliciting so-called “bareback” or unprotected anal sex on the Internet.

On his Daily Dish blog, Sullivan rails against the “HIV travel ban” and lists some of the organizations lobbying for the entry into the U.S. of untold numbers of AIDS-infected aliens.  They include the ACLU and the Open Society Policy Center, another Soros front organization.

This bill has so many levels of concern for me that I can't in good conscience support it in its current form.  If you have time, I think it would behoove each and everyone of us to write our representatives and tell them we do not support this bill in its current form and why.  Helping those in need is a charitable and noble thing.  However, charity needs to be done with integrity and responsibility. 

Remaining Steadfast

Dominique