AIDS Action Applauds Presidential Budget Veto Urges President to Stand Firm on Medicaid

President Bill Clinton today rightly vetoed legislation that would have dismantled the health care safety net that Medicaid has come to represent for millions of poor and medically needy Americans, including almost half of all people living with HIV disease. We applaud the President's veto of the budget reconciliation bill and its devastating cuts to Medicaid and other vital social programs. We welcome the President's expression of solidarity with those fighting the AIDS pandemic and his words in support not only of maintaining, but also strengthening an already fragile AIDS health care infrastructure. President Clinton's recent words and his veto today of a heartless budget bill are commendable. Now we must urge the President to stand firm in his convictions through the post-veto budget negotiations with Congress. He must continue to protect Medicaid and other vital federal AIDS programs from those who would balance the federal budget on the backs of this nation's most vulnerable citizens. To do otherwise is to guarantee Americans with AIDS needless pain and hastened deaths.

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For more information, contact:
Beth Jones
AIDS Action Council
1875 Connecticut Avenue NW #700
Washington DC 20009
202-986-1300 x 3042
202-986-1345 (fax)
202-332-9614 (tty)
E-Mail: HN3384@handsnet.org

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Mark Barnes is executive director of AIDS Action Council. Founded in 1984, AIDS Action represents more than 1,000 community-based AIDS service organizations nationwide, and is the only national organization devoted solely to lobbying the federal government on AIDS policy, legislation and funding.