Trump Team Cancels AIDS Day Funding, Boosts War Machine Instead
The Trump team's decision to drop funding for World AIDS Day, after 37 years of US support, signals a profound shift. This isn't just about 'budget cuts'; it's about what gets funded. While domestic health initiatives or global disease awareness often face the axe, the US military budget, for example, under the same administration, saw record increases. In 2017, Department of Defense spending rose
by $52 billion (Source: Department of Defense, Annual Budget Request). One might wonder if the compassion budget is directly proportional to the weapons procurement budget. So, Washington can find billions for advanced weaponry to send overseas (often to 'allies' in active conflicts), but a few thousand to acknowledge a global health crisis that has claimed millions of lives? That's apparently
where the line is drawn. It appears some national security threats, like the threat of not projecting military might, simply take precedence over threats like, say, a pandemic. How many fighter jets does it take to cure AIDS?