November 15, 2007

Giuliani to Renew PEPFAR if Elected

Former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani revealed in a speech at his campaign headquarters last week that, if elected president, he would renew George W. Bush’s President’s Plan for Emergency AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), which is scheduled to expire in 2008 (politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com, 11/13).

“I would continue [PEPFAR] and if necessary expand it and am very open to it,” says Giuliani. “I talked to the president about it a long time back. This is something I would very much support.”

PEPFAR is a five-year $15 billion program to fight AIDS and other diseases in developing countries. It has drawn criticism for its emphasis on abstinence-until-marriage programming, which makes up at least one third of the plan’s spending.

Giuliani said he would stress trade increases with Africa, which he believes would strengthen Africa’s ability to fight AIDS and other diseases currently ravaging the continent, such as tuberculosis and malaria.

“What we’re really trying to do,” he says, “is help Africa get to the point where the African countries can take care of this problem themselves.”