Sen. Rodham Clinton should allow passage of new formula to reauthorize Ryan White care act

Aug 28 2006

While former President Clinton attended the XVI International AIDS Conference in Toronto, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.) was "hard at work with her own AIDS effort, albeit significantly more political and less noble," a Washington Times editorial says.

Rodham Clinton is "impeding" the approval of a bill (S 2823) that would reauthorize the Ryan White Care Act, according to the editorial (Washington Times, 8/24).

The bill would create a tiered system of larger and smaller cities in an effort to distribute funds to more rural states (Kaiser Daily HIV/AIDS Report, 8/23).

The bill also would send fewer funds to New York state and "likely battleground states in the 2008 election," the editorial says.

"Whether to keep the federal funds flowing to her home state or for other electoral reasons, [Rodham] Clinton should know it's quite unbecoming of a probable presidential aspirant to play to her corner at the expense of national interests," according to the editorial.

In Toronto, "Bill Clinton's speech avoided crass partisanship in its call" to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the editorial says, concluding, "It's a shame that Mrs. Clinton could not similarly put her own agenda aside for the sake of America's struggle against AIDS" (Washington Times, 8/24).