In the Scrum: Bill Gates argues for sparing AIDS programs from the budget-cutting knives
Shortly after Bill Gates spoke to the International AIDS Conference in Washington this week, the Microsoft founder, now less boyish and with some gray at his temples, sat down with National Journal to discuss the progress of the international struggle against the disease. Gates’s eponymous Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has been at the forefront of efforts to control AIDS, and this self-described “numeric person” sees trend lines justifying both optimism and continued concern. Edited excerpts follow.
NJ In a period of economic slowdown, when government budgets are strained, will the world be able to continue increasing its financial commitment to this problem?
GATES I think that the rate of increase that we saw over the last 12 years will not continue. Whether you take global health broadly or AIDS in particular, the increase from the rich countries, including the U.S., over this 12-year period has been phenomenal. This get-together celebrates the 8 million people who are alive because of that generosity. But it’s a fact that it won’t keep going up as it has. I guess there’s no item in the U.S. budget that should rule out the possibility of being cut in the face of the deficit and what’s going on. But there’s no part of the government where the cause and effect is more clear. If you cut this budget, fewer people get drugs and, therefore, more people die.
NJ How serious a threat do you see to the budgets in other Western countries?
GATES It’s worse outside the U.S., if you can believe that. Because what some people call the bond vigilantes have showed up in Spain and Italy. So those countries have made cuts to all their budget items. The U.K. is sort of the most amazing, in that they had made a commitment to get up to 0.7 percent of gross domestic product of giving to poor countries—and they’re actually going to achieve it ahead of schedule.