Archives: Morning Breakouts

"[T]oday, with the national debt approaching $14.7 trillion, Americans rightly demand fiscal responsibility. Yet efforts in Congress to cut billions from the president's proposed budget for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) are short-sighted," Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, writes in a Wall Street Journal opinion piece. He adds that "all of our foreign aid programs and foreign policy initiatives -- from sending diplomats to Afghanistan to helping reverse the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa -- cost less than one-tenth of our annual military expenditures" and "comprises a mere 1.5 percent" of President Obama's FY 2013 budget request.

China's State Council, or cabinet, on Wednesday "published the country's AIDS Action Plan for the 12th Five-Year Program period (2011-2015) on the website of the Chinese government, www.gov.cn," Xinhua/China.org.cn reports (2/29). According to the plan, "China hopes to cap the number of people living with HIV/AIDS at 1.2 million by 2015, up from around 780,000 at present," by promoting condom use, reducing stigma and discrimination, and educating urban and rural populations, as well as local officials, about the disease, Reuters notes (Blanchard, 2/29). In addition, the plan aims to implement interventions among people at higher risk of infection, such as drug users, and increase the rates of HIV testing and treatment, according to Xinhua (2/29).

"People look to [the U.S.] to protect our allies; stand by our principles; serve as an honest broker in making peace; to fight hunger, poverty, and disease; to stand up to bullies and tyrants everywhere," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Tuesday in testimony to the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, and she added that to do so "takes more than just resolve. It takes resources," ABS-CBNnews.com reports (Jaleco, 2/29).

In a case closely watched by the insurance industry, Maine's top court Tuesday upheld state regulators' authority to hold down rate increases sought by Anthem Health Plans of Maine.

According to a new report, more than 800,000 visits to the ER in 2009 were for avoidable dental ailments.

Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., has refused a request from former Rep. Patrick Kennedy, D-R.I., to pull a campaign advertisement rejecting the federal birth control mandate that features Kennedy's father, the late Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass.