During an interview aired on Saturday night, FOX News’ Bret Baier asks the Bushes about the administration’s $30 Billion package for AIDS and malaria programs in Africa.
The short conversation that ensues is about halfway through the clip below. (You’ll need Windows Media Player to watch it and it may take a minute to load.)
I also transcribed some excerpts from both Laura and George Bush.
First Lady Laura Bush:
“Economies depend on a … workforce, people who are in good health. If your workforce [is] sick with malaria half the time it’s very difficult. Or sick with AIDS. So… making people healthy is really helpful also for those African economies that are trying to build a better life for the people in their countries.”
President George W. Bush:
“I think government has a responsibility to protect the American people. It’s just part of an overall strategy to protect us. And the United States has to make up its mind – if it’s going to confront the conditions that cause radicalism and protect ourselves, or retreat and withdrawl and say, ‘well you know it costs too much money, therefor we’re not going to try to help others.’”
-Virginia Simmons
First Lady Laura Bush talked about PEPFAR and the President’s Malaria Initiative on the Chris Wallace show on Sunday. Watch the clip here. (Note, it may take a few minutes for the full video to load.)
From the interview:
Laura Bush: But many of the policies that I’ve had the chance to visit, like the PEPFAR, the president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief, or the president’s malaria initiative in Africa, are policies that really came from him, I mean, that he felt like the United States could be effective by making sure a whole lot of people in Africa had the chance to get on antiretrovirals and literally save lives.
And my daughter Barbara was in Kenya and Rwanda this week. She went with the World Food Program. And I visited some World Food Program sites and PEPFAR sites.
And she said that when she was introduced, this made her weep. People would say your dad saved my life, because they’re very aware they’re getting antiretrovirals because of the president’s emergency plan which, of course, is funded by the American people, by the American taxpayer.
Chris Wallace: Nancy Reagan once told me that during her husband’s second term, she felt freer to go out to talk about public policy and her views on them, and you seem to be doing the same thing. Why is that?
Laura Bush: Well, I don’t know that it’s — I mean, I think I felt perfectly free during the first term as well to talk about whatever I was interested in. But I also think it took me a while to realize what a platform I had.
You can read the full transcript here.
