[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 65 (Friday, May 10, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E773]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      WES PRUDEN ON THE AIDS LOBBY

                                 ______


                         HON. ROBERT K. DORNAN

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, May 10, 1996

  Mr. DORNAN. Mr. Speaker, I commend the following editorial to my 
colleagues. Wes Pruden ranks at the top of all commentary writers.

                Inflating The Lie Can Be Worth Millions

                           (By Wesley Pruden)

       Some lies are so big they inevitably topple over, like the 
     fat lady on a windy day at the beach.
       One of the biggest lies of recent times is the terrifying 
     whopper, promulgated and promoted by the U.S. government, 
     that anyone can get AIDS. The corollary of ``anyone,'' of 
     course, is ``everyone.'' Maybe even Mother Teresa.
       Nobody has pushed this lie harder than the public-health 
     officials appointed by Bill Clinton. Joycelyn Elders, the 
     condomander-in-chief in the first years of the Clinton 
     interrregnum, pushed it hardest of all.
       The Wall Street Journal reported this week that the Centers 
     for Disease Control (CDC) has routinely and deliberately 
     exaggerated the risks to heterosexuals because government 
     officials who lobby Congress for federal research money think 
     it's easier to get money for ``straights.''
       Naturally the government's lobbyists insist that such 
     chicanery is the furthest thing from noble bureaucratic 
     minds. Dr. Helene Gayle, director of the CDC's National 
     Center for HIV, says it was only the ``trends,'' not 
     something as gritty as politics, that ``guide the way we 
     develop interventions.'' By ``interventions,'' the lady means 
     strategies for scarfing up dollars.
       The CDC, under pressure from the politicians pandering to 
     the lavender lobby, has been lying about AIDS for years. This 
     newspaper, surveying a wide range of government researchers, 
     reported in 1987, when the government scare offensive was 
     first organized, that heterosexuals who lived ordinary 
     lives--i.e., just about all of us--were at small risk of 
     contracting AIDS. The exceptions were those who receive blood 
     transfusions--such risk now is tiny, indeed--and who inject 
     intravenous drugs with needles shared with the neighborhood 
     hophead.
       We relied on CDC figures, suspect then as now, about who 
     was getting AIDS. The CDC reports that as of Dec. 31, 1995, a 
     total of 513,486 cases have been tabulated since June 1981. 
     Of those, 51 percent are homosexual or bisexual males, 25 
     percent are druggies, and 8 percent are heterosexuals. This 
     doesn't add up to 100 percent, and the rest are a mixture of 
     men or women who live with druggies or either aren't sure or 
     lie about who they are. The heterosexual percentage is 
     thought to be inflated.
       CDC spokesmen, stung by the new publicity, conceded 
     yesterday that the money spent on countering the AIDS 
     ``epidemic'' had been spent in the wrong places, targeting 
     the wrong people, and now it intends to funnel more AIDS 
     money to those who need it most. ``We've got to make sure we 
     follow the trends,'' said the spokesman, with a straight 
     face, ``and at this time young gay men, minority gay men and 
     [mostly minority] women who are partners of IV drug users are 
     increasingly at risk.'' What the CDC won't say is that these 
     are the people who always have been at risk.
       The Wall Street Journal concludes that, for most 
     heterosexuals, the risk of AIDS is something less than the 
     risk of getting hit by lightning. For children, whom the 
     government frightens most of all, the risk is about that of 
     getting hit by a meteor.
       But the government lie, that anyone/everyone catches it, 
     certainly was effective. The media eager to promote the 
     homosexual agenda, sensationalized the threat until soon 
     nearly everyone imagined that Elizabeth Taylor would one day 
     wear a little ribbon for all of us. Only last year, Redbook 
     magazine ran a story titled, provocatively, ``Could I Have 
     AIDS?'' The author, an obscure hysteric, concluded: ``My mind 
     automatically telescopes to AIDS every time I get sick.''
       John Ward, chief of AIDS tracking for the government, told 
     the Wall Street Journal: ``I don't see much downside in 
     slightly exaggerating the risk of AIDS.'' Well, the risk to 
     him and his agency is that there's no reason now for any of 
     us to believe anything he says.
       But it wasn't just the government. Many parents, despairing 
     of instilling anything as quaint as moral values in their 
     children, were eager to frighten their randy offspring into 
     careful, if not moral, behavior. The homosexual lobby, 
     despairing of legitimate reckless behavior and reckoning that 
     the public regards them as being in deep doo-doo anyway, 
     wanted to reduce the stigma of sexual practices most people 
     regarded as repulsive. And certain moralists, with little 
     human kindness in their hearts, insisted that God had just 
     downloaded the e-mail message that AIDS was divine 
     retribution. Some of them even seemed pleased.
       I once asked Joycelyn Elders, who eagerly lectured 
     Americans that they should quit smoking because it's bad for 
     their health even though it might feel good, whether she 
     would be willing to tell homosexual lovers to knock off the 
     anal intercourse because it's bad for their health even if 
     feels good. She just changed the subject.

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