Marjorie Taylor Greene Calls To Stop Fighting AIDS In Africa: ‘We Should Be Caring About Americans’

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) gave a speech on the House floor this week calling to end U.S. funding to fight HIV and AIDS in Africa, widely considered one of the most successful humanitarian missions in U.S. history.

“In Tanzania, USAID helped access 7.8 million in private sector financing for private clinics. This investment resulted in 35% increase in HIV testing and over 10,000 patients tested, and 100% of positive patients linked to care in Nigeria,” Greene began, listing these statistics in a negative tone.

“USAID engaged in private pharmacies to provide HIV treatment. Meanwhile, the fentanyl drug crisis continues to rage across America, but we continue to fund USAID with billions of dollars to address AIDS and other diseases all over the world. We should be caring about Americans, and we should be funding the treatment for Americans here at home from a weapon of mass destruction that is murdering Americans every single day. The American tax people are funding this, and the American tax people want their problems solved,” Greene concluded.

Greene also made headlines for trying to defund the salary of USAID administrator Samantha Power for supporting DEI programs having served in the Obama administration as the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations.

Ironically, Greene’s call to defund programs in Africa related to HIV treatment was a call to end a widely praised Republican initiative that started under President George W. Bush as part of his compassionate conservatism.

Bush’s President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief, or PEPFAR, has “resulted in 25 million lives saved from AIDS, 20 million people with HIV provided antiretroviral treatment and 5.5 million babies born to HIV-positive mothers but free of the virus themselves,” according to NBC News in 2023 – the twenty-year anniversary of the initiative. Bush himself has often called it his proudest achievement while in office and urged subsequent administrations to continue funding it. USAID, which Greene called to defund, is one of the key agencies that works with PEPFAR overseas.

Watch the clip above.

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