Fighting HIV/AIDs and the Attack of 9/11 During Presidency of George W Bush

George W. Bush, our countries 43rd president, is mostly known for being the president during the September 11 terrorist attack, and taking military action with Iraq and Afghanistan. However, many consider his greatest achievement to be in public health, helping combat AIDs, particularly in Africa. Going into his presidency, Bush was already concerned with helping African poverty, but later his main focus turned to helping with AIDs when Condoleezza Rice, his secretary of state, presented the issue to him. Although the United States had already invested time and money into the global AID crisis, spending 500 million dollars every year, there still was more to do in fixing this huge problem.

The United States then became the first contributor to a global fund for fighting HIV/AIDs. In 2002, President Bush started the Mother and Child HIV Prevention Initiative. It targeted over one million mothers in Africa and in the Carribean for treatment against AIDs. The goal with this was to save the lives of 150,000 babies, affected by this disease. Bush later proposed that the U.S. would spend $15 billion over the span of five years, fighting against HIV/AIDs. The money would be going to medical care and drugs for 10 million patients, as well as helping millions of children orphaned because of their parents deaths from AIDs. The whole project became known as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDs Relief (PEPFAR). 12 countries in Africa and 2 in the Carribean were selected to be a part of PEPFAR. The program was very successful, and Bush later asked to add a funding increase, and in 2008, the total was $39 billion.

Throughout George W. Bush's presidency, PEPFAR had treated 2 million patients, and assisted 10 million. During George W. Bush’s presidency, huge economic issues had occurred. While housing prices were going up in the U.S., financial institutions decided to buy mortgages in bulk as in investment. Later in April of 2007, New Century Financial, a subprime mortgage lender, declared bankruptcy. Later, the Federal Home Loan and Mortgage Corporation announced that it would no longer be buying mortgage-related securities or risky subprime mortgages. New Century Financial soon collapsed, as well as other big mortgage lenders. Housing prices across the country began to rapidly fall. The stock market was also dropping. The Dow Jones Industrial, which was a very popular stock to invest in, lost over half of its value, resulting in their investors suffering great financial loss.

Over the course of the Great Recession, the net worth of American non-profits and households plummetted, going down by more than 20% (A loss of about $14 trillion). The U.S. Federal Reserve (or “Fed”), started taking action. They reduced the national target interest rate, as well as other things to reduce economic losses. George W. Bush signed the “Economic Stimulus Act” into law, which allowed taxpayers with rebates. This increased the loan limit for federal home loan programs, and reduced taxes. However, the country’s economic problems were far from over. Along with other big investments, financial behemoth Lehman Brother had declared bankruptcy. The Fed then later agreed to lend the insurance and investment company AIG $85 billion. People say that AIG was “too big too fail”. It’s collapse would leave the U.S. economy with even more destabilized. With the fear of more collapses, President Bush approved of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which would essentially provide the government with $700 billion in funds.

The funds would go to purchasing struggling companies’ assets to keep them in business. Within weeks, TARP had spent over $125 billion in purchasing assets from nine major banks, and later, it would be used to bail out Chrysler and General Motors ($80 billion), and Bank of America ($125 billion). Bush had left America with the U.S. economy at its weakest point since President Hoover. As I mentioned earlier, President George W. Bush is best known for being the president at the time of 9/11. During that horrible and scary time for the people of the United States, Bush was able to show his leadership and gave people confidence by them knowing someone was in charge and speaking for and to the American people. Bush insisted on staying in the White House the night of the attacks instead of hiding away in bunkers. Congress authorized the decision to eliminate those who perpetrated the attacks of 9/11, and President Bush ordered an invasion of Afghanistan. The Taliban leadership was driven into the mountains and across the borders into neighboring countries, including Pakistan. Unfortunately, the war against Afghanistan has become the longest war in American history.

Soon after the 9/11 attacks, President Bush also pushed towards a restructuring of the American national security apparatus and the passage of the Patriot Act. This allowed the government to be able to lower the risk of any future terror attacks on the U.S. If I was able to vote at the time of President George W Bush’s campaign,