Giving validity to the voice is what Pres Clinton has always done.
On behalf of his AIDS Conf speech, I leave you this.
Bill and Hillary Clinton visiting the AIDS Quilt when it was on display in the National Mall, 1996.
The president later told a PBS interviewer:
"I remember when Hillary and I walked on the Mall [in Washington, D.C.] to see the AIDS Quilt. We walked back and forth to see all the squares, and we were looking for people that we knew.
We had several people that we'd known and cared about who had had HIV, and it had grown into AIDS, and they had not survived it, including someone that Hillary worked with very closely in Legal Services back in the '70s.
It was a personally emotional thing, seeing the love and devotion that those sections of the quilt represented for all those people who died prematurely, and knowing that now, with medicine, they didn't have to die anymore, if we did the right things.
It was a very emotional day."
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SNIP
President Bill Clinton's record on HIV/AIDS promises, as of August 1996 (Knight-Ridder via Seattle Times):
-- Appoint a federal AIDS policy coordinator.
*Yes: He named Kristine Gebbie in June 1993; she resigned amid criticism. In November 1994, he named Patricia Fleming director; she remains. --
Lift the ban on travel and immigration to the United States for people infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS.
*No: Clinton tried to lift the ban, but Congress put the ban into a bill he signed because it included other priorities, such as money for the National Institutes of Health. --
Increase funding for AIDS research, prevention and treatment.
*Yes: Funding has increased by 39 percent since Clinton took office, and his fiscal 1997 budget request would boost it by 43 percent from the level when he took office. --
Speed the approval process for AIDS-related drugs.
*Yes: The Food and Drug Administration approved a new class of protease-inhibitor drugs in 1996 under an accelerated review process. --
Support local efforts to make condoms available in schools.
*Yes: In 1994 federal public-service announcements advocated condoms for the first time, and the administration also encourages local advisory groups that distribute federal money to promote condoms. --
Provide health coverage to all Americans with HIV infection.
*No: His big health-care-reform proposal would have provided this, but it died in Congress. --
Fully fund the Ryan White Care Act to provide $275 million to cities for AIDS treatment.
*Yes: Funding under the act is now at $738.5 million in fiscal 1996, up 117 percent over his first three years. Clinton's fiscal 1997 request would push funding up by 129 percent over four years. --
Provide drug treatment on demand to stop the spread of HIV by intravenous drug users.
*No: Congress has resisted Clinton's requests for such treatment; he seeks $1.2 billion for fiscal 1997. --
Improve access to experimental therapies.
*Yes: Created office of alternative medicines at National Institutes of Health. Encouraged states to fund such treatments under Medicaid coverage. --
Provide confidential or anonymous testing for AIDS or HIV, as well as AIDS counseling, for everyone who wants it.
*Yes: The Centers for Disease Control budget expands these services at some 900 testing sites. The administration also encourages states to provide this through Medicaid. --
Prohibit health plans from providing lower coverage for AIDS than other life-threatening illnesses.
*Yes: The Kennedy-Kassebaum bill passed by Congress in August, which Clinton intends to sign, would ensure this.
***Clinton's engagement with HIV/AIDS in Africa:
As the magnitude of the HIV/AIDS pandemic in Africa and other regions of the world increased, the Administration moved to take a leadership role in addressing its humanitarian, political, and economic impact....
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Good Read. MORE at LINK
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