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President Bush And U2's Bono: "A Good Ol' Row"
November 01, 2003
Since its introduction in May 2003, the U.S. global AIDS initiative has been widely discussed by politicians and AIDS activists alike. The initiative is a financial package designed by President Bush and the White House to provide $15 billion in targeted foreign aid over the next five years to developing nations fighting the spread of HIV/AIDS. Hopes for the impact of the aid money run high among foreign leaders (particularly in African nations, where most of the assistance is directed), AIDS advocates, and people living with the disease who are in need of treatment.
In spite of all the publicity the AIDS initiative has received over the last five months, the actual contribution levels have been harder to finalize: although the measure authorizes three billion dollars of aid for the first year of the program, to date the Bush administration has requested only two billion dollars. Attempts to raise additional funds have been defeated in both the Republican-led House and Senate, as well. During a July press conference, President Bush explained "we didn't think the program could ramp up fast enough to absorb that amount of money early." 1
Bono at the White House
On September 16, Bono, the lead singer of legendary band U2 and the founder of DATA, an AIDS, debt relief, and trade advocacy organization, paid a special visit to the White House in order to urge President Bush to honor his pledge and dedicate the full three billion dollars to the global AIDS initiative in fiscal year 2004.
Bono is not a stranger to politics and advocacy, by any means. He traveled to South Africa in May 2002 with then-Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill, to see firsthand the toll HIV/AIDS was taking on citizens of that country. His experiences on the trip only furthered his resolve to encourage Western nations to commit to the fight against HIV/AIDS in the developing world. Bono sees the spread of HIV as a matter of national security: as he wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post last January, the millions of African deaths from AIDS-related causes are deeply linked to "the security implications of the destruction of the African family, African economies, African hopes." For these reasons, Bono has spent months urging President Bush to "show the world the kind of leadership [in the fight against AIDS] that only America can provide." 2
According to DATA, the one billion dollars hanging in the balance of the global AIDS initiative could be used to prevent an additional 1.6 million HIV infections in Africa. DATA's argument, which Bono took directly to the top in his visit with President Bush, is that stopping the spread of AIDS as quickly as possible will save the United States and other countries a great deal of money in the long run. "AIDS metastasizes as a problem," Bono said, in an interview in USA Today.3 "It's actually much cheaper to deal with it quickly… Now [the Bush Administration] wants $87 billion for two countries, Iraq and Afghanistan. How about $1 billion extra for an entire continent? I don't think that's too much to ask this week. It all feeds into the same thing anyway, which is the way the world sees America."
Bono sees his role as an AIDS advocate as essentially non-partisan. "We're saying to both parties, 'please do not play politics with these people's lives in an election year. Please, can this be the one thing you all agree on?' In an election year, I think this actually brings out the best. All the other issues are contentious-the war, the economy. This is something America can really be proud of."
"A Good Ol' Row" At the White House
The meeting at the White House on September 16, which Bono described as a "good ol' row," involved more horn locking than deal striking. "He's very passionate about these problems and I believe him," Bono said of President Bush, once the session had concluded. "I just can't agree with the numbers."4 In response to the President's doubts that the program could handle such a substantial influx of money so early on, Bono said, "it's sort of 'We'd love to give them the money, but the Africans just couldn't spend it.' Please, just say you don't have the money, but don't say that. Let's be respectful of the gravity of 7,000 casualties a day to this illness."5
At the news conference immediately following the meeting, White House press secretary Scott McClellan commented "The president has shown unprecedented leadership in the fight against AIDS." Bono's words on the subject were as impassioned as ever: "The AIDS emergency is just that. It's not a cause. We're not here peddling a cause. We're not looking to get into America's wallet for another cause. Several thousand people dying a day is not a cause, it's an emergency."6 As is often the case in public policy, there remains much work ahead to finalize the details of the Global AIDS Initiative and its execution. But one thing is for sure: as long as the discussion about AIDS funding continues, Bono is likely to be a high-profile figure in the debate.
Want to learn more about Bono's organization DATA?
Visit http://www.data.org
Want to hear more about President Bush's HIV/AIDS Initiatives? Visit http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/hivaids/index.html
1 Daily HIV/AIDS report, 9/16/03
2 Both quotes come from the Washington Post, 1/27/03.
3 USA Today, 9/16/03.
4 "Bush, Bono Clash Over AIDS Funding," 9/17/03
5 Daily HIV/AIDS report, 9/16/03
6 "Bush, Bono Clash," as above
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