In days where the federal government spends trillions of dollars, where it costs 6,300 dollars a second to conduct a war, and where it costs hundreds of millions just to run for president, we can become jaded about just what ten billion dollars looks like. I often imagine what I would do if I had ten billion dollars. I haven't decided on anything yet, but let's just say the idea of having a lifetime supply of tacos isn't out of the question. Near the bottom of that very long list in my mind is conducting any kind of abstinence campaign in Africa in an attempt to curb AIDS, (that campaign is number 42,123 on my list, just ahead of buying a lifetime supply of spagettiO's).

On Wednesday, President Bush urged congress to pass his initiative to increase the US funding to fight AIDS in Africa to more than $30 billion. Like all seemingly intelligent decisions made by the current administration, there had to be a catch. It wasn't hard to find it.

Under the current language, one third of the money (that's ten billion dollars, for you math wizes out there) must be spent on "abstinence-until-marriage education." Not surprisingly, two lobbying groups, the Family Research Council (FRC) and Concerned Women for America (CWA), are fighting to keep this provision in place.

Of course they are. What two groups could be more capable of identifying a solution to the African AIDS problem than the Family Research Council and Concerned Women for America? Obviously not the Institute of Medicine or the Government Accountability Office, both of which have said this provision seriously impedes the initiative's effectiveness.

Global AIDS Alliance agrees....the abstinence provision "is a requirement that's not working," said David Bryden. "The biggest problem here is that HIV is spreading rapidly among young people, including teenagers. And that's not something we can put our head in the sand about and hope that somehow these kids are going to become abstinent. It's not realistic."

James Dobson's Family Research Council, in its tireless research on how SpongeBob cartoons make our children gay, apparently found evidence (or asked Jesus to give it to them) that abstinence would work in the fight against AIDS in Africa:

"We're definitely going to be lobbying very hard both Congress and President Bush who has supported these provisions to keep them in," said Tom McClusky, vice president of government affairs at the FRC. "It's not even a large part of the overall spending, but some in Congress are upset and want to try to remove that. I'm sorry, but I think that condemns hundreds of thousands of people to death."

Yeah, its not that big of a part of the spending. Its only 10 billion dollars.  

Jonathan is the editor of SkipperStyle.