Joe Cunningham: “I want to just put a face on AIDS and a small victory. Being on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and…”

“I want to just put a face on AIDS and a small victory. Being on the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services and Education, we quite often go out to the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. There I met a young African American. He walked up to me and says, ``Congressman, I have AIDS.'' He said, ``Every day I wake up and the only thing I think about is dying.'' He said this was so, until a medical research breakthrough that has a procedure where he goes through hell about every 6 months, but it extends his life. What it is called is hope. This young man now, with some hope, has gone out and bought a home, where he would not before. He has bought stocks. He did not before. I would say that I am a fiscal conservative. Speaker Gingrich used to talk about diabetes, that if we could stop amputations and blindness, think of the money we would save, let alone the quality of life. Well, I would say that if we could better people's lives, stop the hospital visitations and AIDS, think of the money that will be saved for health care to provide those dollars for more and more people.”