Another element of the Obama Administration’s Lesser but Still real Evil

Tikkun Magazine

When people often say that they are going to reelect Obama as “the lesser evil,” it is important to acknowledge that though lesser evil, the Obama Administration has been involved in considerable evil.


By Jeffrey Sachs

Huffington Post

The wonder of our world is that scientific knowledge is

now so powerful that we can save millions of children,

mothers, and fathers from killer diseases each year at

little cost. The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB, and

Malaria has mobilized that knowledge over the past

decade to save more than 7 million lives and to protect

the health of hundreds of millions more. Yet now the

Global Fund is under mortal threat because of budget

cuts approved by President Obama and the Congress.



The Obama Administration had pledged $4 billion during

2011-13 to the Global Fund, or $1.33 billion per year.

Now it is reneging on this pledge. For a government

that spends $1.9 billion every single day on the

military ($700 billion each year), Washington’s

unwillingness to follow through on $1.33 billion for a

whole year to save millions of lives is a new depth of

cynicism and recklessness.



As a result of US budget cutbacks, and me-too cutbacks

by other countries, the Global Fund this week closed

its doors on providing new funds to impoverished

nations. It was supposed to accept proposals next month

from the poorest countries for an 11th round of

disease-control funds. Instead, it has scrapped any new

funding until 2014 at the earliest, and will only fund

the continuation of the coverage of existing programs.

US officials will prevaricate, noting that the US

spends this amount or that amount. History will treat

such excuses with the scorn they deserve.



Millions of people are now at risk of death in the

coming years as a result of Obama’s lassitude and

neglect. Hundreds of thousands of children who would

have been saved will now die of mosquito bites. They

will die because they live in poor tropical

environments where a mosquito bite kills, and where

their impoverishment makes it impossible for them to

afford a $5 bed net, $1 diagnostic test, $1 dose of

anti-malaria medicine, or access to a clinic. Countless

others will die because they cannot get AIDS or TB

treatments to stay alive.



If you think that money spent on the Global Fund is

money down the drain, think again. The Global Fund was

created a decade ago because the world needed to

respond to the uncontrolled epidemics of AIDS, malaria,

and TB. It has been a historic success, proving the

skeptics wrong. The Global Fund keeps alive 3.2 million

people on anti-retroviral treatment. It has financed

8.2 million courses of TB treatment and the

distribution of 190 million insecticide-treated nets.

You can read an overview here.



The Global Fund money has reached millions of people in

need. When its programs have been hit by corruption,

audits have paused the funding and reoriented the

programs. The result of this practical approach is

great success in many of the world’s poorest places.

Malaria has come down sharply, averting an estimated

400,000 deaths per year in Africa compared to the

baseline path as of the year 2000. Yet there are still

around 700,000 malaria deaths each year that can be

prevented if the Global Fund has the means. Read here

about the remarkable progress against malaria. Similar

progress is being made against AIDS. Now that progress

is at dire risk.



Reorienting less than 1 day’s military budget to help

save millions of lives (in conjunction with the efforts

of other countries) is not only a great humanitarian

step but also the most cost-effective step we can take

for our own security. Countries like Yemen or Somalia

are falling apart because they cannot meet their most

basic needs. We send in drone missiles – each one at

the cost of at least 20,000 bed nets — but we will

find no real security until we help address the

problems of disease, poverty, and hunger that

destabilize these regions.



It is painful to recall the campaign promises made by

Obama and Secretary Hillary Clinton. Both promised that

they would step up the fight to control AIDS, TB, and

malaria. Empty words. President Obama’s aides tell him

that foreign assistance is bad domestic politics and he

listens. On this issue even George W. Bush knew better.



The head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Congress,

Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, is not quiet. She is

an aggressive and outspoken foe of foreign assistance,

pretending to her constituents that cutting a $1

billion to the Global Fund is the way to balance the

budget. Great, we’re now 0.001 of the way there.



The United States Government, I noted earlier, is not

alone in the collapse of morality, decency, and common

sense. Each government that once contributed to the

Global Fund takes refuge in the budget cuts by the US

and the others. The apparent belief of the politicians

is that there is safety in numbers if they all starve

the Global Fund together.



We live in a country where the Federal Government

doesn’t think twice about the fate of impoverished and

dying people. Such a government won’t act to save your

life or mine. Politicians so brazen and irresponsible

need to be voted out of office. In the meantime, I will

join the efforts around the world to find new means and

new leaders to continue the struggle against the killer

diseases. I hope that you will do so too.



Economist Jeffrey Sachs is a professor and director of

the Earth Institute at Columbia University; Special

Advisor to the UN Secretery-General; author, ‘The Price

of Civilization’ Follow Sachs on Twitter:

www.twitter.com/JeffDSachs