Specter Wastes No Time Getting Down
Anyone that has listened to Arlen Specter (D-bag, Pennsylvania) over the past couple of years knows that he has sounded more and more detached from reality. And I’m not talking about his recent switch to the Democratic party. Over the weekend, Specter plumbed new lows, using the death of former colleague Jack Kemp for partisan purposes.
In Specter Claims Kemp Would Be Alive if Congress Better Funded Medical Research, Specter claims
If we had pursued what President Nixon declared in 1970 as the war on cancer, we would have cured many strains. I think Jack Kemp would be alive today. And that research has saved or prolonged many lives, including mine.
Yes, and if we had just funded more AIDS research…and if we had just funded more fetal stem cell research…and if we had just…
What Specter really ought to be interested in is more funding for mental health issues.
I’d certainly like to see a debate on how we fund disease research. Some diseases receive disproportionate funding compared to the number of those stricken. One such disease is AIDS. And, unlike most cancers, AIDS is nearly always the direct result of choices made by its victims. These choices - for example, the sharing of needles, unprotected (and even protected) sex of various sorts - have been well known to lead to HIV and AIDS since the national brochure was sent to US households in 1988 from Surgeon General C. Everett Koop.
Would Specter have us divert AIDS funding to the NCI?