James A. Leach: “Perspective is the most important and most difficult thing to apply to issues of the day. If one were to look at the…”

“Perspective is the most important and most difficult thing to apply to issues of the day. If one were to look at the 14th century, clearly the seminal event was the Bubonic plague in which some 20 million people died. Now, as many have died from AIDS as of the plague. Within a decade it will be a multiple of that figure. If sitting on the Moon, one might suggest that the most important public policy issue of our day is dealing with disease control, most particularly AIDS. In a very moral sense, it is probably the deepest philosophical issue of our time. Indeed, the global AIDS epidemic might be considered an epidemic of Biblical proportions. Everyone in this Congress understands that foreign assistance is controversial, but we are, after all, our brother's keeper and we must be concerned for the global family. We also have to be concerned for our own families. To the degree AIDS is not thwarted abroad, it threatens our own shores. This bill is a lot of money, but it is an extraordinarily sparse amount compared with the need; and I think of all the bills we are going to vote on in the near future, this is going to be the most justified financial expense the United States Congress has undertaken.”