
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, March 30, 1990                   TAG: 9003300286
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: The Washington Post
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

BUSH AIDS SPEECH DECRIED AS 'TOO LITTLE, TOO LATE'

In his first major speech on the AIDS epidemic, President Bush Thursday called for an end to discrimination against those infected with the virus and praised his administration's efforts to combat the disease.

Bush's long-awaited remarks represented the strongest public commitment ever given by the White House to fighting the epidemic. But many AIDS activists, including two hecklers, criticized the content of Bush's address as too timid a response to the severity of the AIDS crisis. The hecklers disrupted the speech with shouts of "Too little, too late" and "Why did it take you 14 months to say this?"

"He has shown sensitivity and concern that we have yet to witness from the office," said Jean McGuire, executive director of the AIDS Action Council. "But a decade of neglect requires more aggressive leadership than we have seen today."

"This speech would have been truly significant if it had been delivered six years ago," said Larry Kessler, a member of the National Commission on AIDS.

Bush's remarks were delivered before a meeting of the National Leadership Commission on AIDS, a private sector group established three years ago to respond to the epidemic. Before a crowd of 500, the president cited the "unprecedented" $3.5 billion budgeted for fighting AIDS this year, praised the "American pioneers" at the National Institutes of Health researching the disease, and urged Congress to pass the Americans with Disabilities Act, a law prohibiting discrimination against men and women with AIDS.

"In this nation, in this decade, there is only one way to deal with an individual who is sick," Bush said. "With dignity, compassion, care, confidentiality, and without discrimination."

But many AIDS activists were disappointed that the president did not address the 3-year-old U.S. policy of preventing AIDS sufferers from immigrating, an issue that has prompted some activists to call for a boycott of an international AIDS conference planned for San Francisco in June.

Bush also pledged no new funds for fighting and treating the disease, despite the large increase in AIDS cases expected this year.

One corporate leader, who addressed the conference immediately before Bush, charged that the president had taken money away from programs to treat AIDS sufferers in order to support research aimed at preventing future infections.

"It is not acceptable to pit those who may be spared from AIDS in the future against those who are already infected," said Robert Haas, chairman of Levi-Straus and Co. "But that is exactly what the president proposed in his budget for the coming year. He removed all the money to pay for AZT and preventative treatments for opportunistic infection for low-income persons not yet eligible for Medicaid. Moreover, he cut all of the money for service demonstration projects used to support home and community based patient care."

"I'm glad he's taking the first step - kinder and gentler rhetoric," said Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the subcommittee on Health and the Environment. "But its all lip service if he doesn't follow up his promises with programs. We can keep people from dying if we provide preventative drugs. We can keep people from getting infected if we provide education. . . . But we can't do any of this without paying for it, and the Bush budget doesn't do that."

by CNB