Barack Obama

Is Obama Failing On AIDS?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | December 1, 2009, 2:26PM

World AIDS Day 2009 is a date that many U.S. activists in the fight against the spread of HIV/AIDS thought would be a high water mark in their decades-long struggle against the deadly disease. President George W. Bush had dramatically increased U.S. AIDS funding during his term in office -- albeit with caveats activists say hurt some of their efforts -- and President Obama had promised to do even more on the campaign trail.

But as activists nationwide take time today a day to focus on a disease that's killed more than half a million Americans, some of them say the promises of a renewed focus on AIDS that came with Obama haven't been realized.

"It's heartbreaking," Matthew Kavanagh, director of U.S. advocacy for Health GAP told TPMDC. His group was among four U.S. AIDS groups that gave Obama a "D+" on AIDS policy yesterday. Kavanagh said that to his shock, he felt Bush had a better record on AIDS research than Obama. "I could not imagine I would be saying that now [last year]. Many folks in the global AIDS movement were so looking forward to stepping up the fight with Obama."

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