Desert AIDS Project's Rally Against California's Proposed Budget Cuts of HIV/AIDS Funding - Part 1 at www.ActionEqualsLife.com

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Tuesday, May 26, 2009, sent state lawmakers a plan to reduce more than $5 billion in spending, including significant cuts to HIV/AIDS services. The proposal slashes $55.5 million from California's AIDS Drug Assistance Program and other state Office of AIDS programs. Schwarzenegger's plan would make HIV-positive people pay more for drugs, while HIV/AIDS programs such as counseling, monitoring and education would be reduced or eliminated altogether.

The budget cut proposals come at a time when the federal government is instituting a National AIDS Strategy in recognition of the imperative to reinvigorate the fight against HIV in the United States.

In California, an estimated 20% of HIV-positive Californians are unaware of their HIV status. Of those who know their status, approximately 20% are not in care. The health of 150,000 Californians living with HIV as well as the lives of those at risk of infection would be seriously endangered by these cuts. It is no exaggeration to say that these proposed budget cuts are life-threatening for thousands of people. Visit ActionEqualsLife.com and make your views know. This is Action Equals Life, the Series, the video companion to www.ActionEqualsLife.com. To support the Desert AIDS Project and learn more about these specific issues, visit www.DesertAIDSProject.org (Taped June 10, 2009).

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• ActionEqualsLife.com
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[fuge000]

another tax dollar wasted

[an9el20]

You are a complete idiot for saying that! Grow an education and some class. maybe some compassion while your there too.

[f12key]

Perhaps now the AIDS people will just drop dead faster and not have as much time to infect more people. This might be a good time.

[LaReinaDelBarrio]

Arnold is a jerk for doing this, also the teachers of California will have the blood of teens who know not of AIDS prevention on their hands. Perhaps the virus will come back to haunt the legislature in a much closer way, like a son or daughter who knew not of AIDS prevention and got infected, Arnold.