The Democratic Congressional leadership didn't get nearly the kicking around it deserved for one particularly despicable provision in the fiscal 2007 spending bill: a clause which canceled funding for a program to prevent unborn babies from contracting HIV from infected mothers.

The program was sponsored by Senator Tom Coburn, who is as everyone knows a friend of the Porkbusting cause. In this case, however, the notoriously frugal Senator (who is also a M.D. ) was urging that the government spend money --- but spend it in a way that would achieve demonstrable results for the well being of children at risk of contracting HIV.

Coburn's office provides the following background:

Since 1994, medical experts have known how to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child. “Baby AIDS” can be virtually eliminated if expectant mothers with HIV are identified and treated with AIDS drugs. Infants whose mothers’ HIV status is unknown may also be protected if HIV antibodies are detected soon after birth and treatment is promptly administered. With treatment, the risk of transmission from mother to child can be reduced to less than one percent. Without treatment, 25 percent of children born to mothers with HIV will become infected, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This may be perhaps the single most significant achievement in the battle against HIV/AIDS.

States such as Connecticut and New York have enacted laws that prioritize diagnosis, treatment and prevention and have, as a result, virtually eliminated baby AIDS. The New York Post has referred to the law as “New York’s Infant AIDS Miracle.”

In 2006, Congress established a $30 million HIV early intervention grant program—funded out of CDC’s HIV prevention budget—to provide financial incentives to assist other states eliminate baby AIDS.

So how far would that $30M go? I'm told that the treatment to prevent HIV transmission from mother to child costs a whopping $100. So let's assume that half the $15M goes to overhead and detection, and we've got $15M left for actual treatment. So that would mean 150,000 babies might be treated with the funding allocated.

By comparison, what if a child is born with HIV? Leaving aside the horrific indifference required to condemn a child to such a fate when it is so easily preventable, the financial cost of treatment during the child's lifetime is also staggering. A 2006 study stated "the monthly medical cost for people with HIV, from the time of beginning appropriate care until death, to be $2,100 on average. The projected life expectancy for these individuals, if they remain in optimal HIV care, has now increased to 24.2 years, and the lifetime per person HIV care cost is now $618,900 per person."

So: with your $30M, you can prevent 150,000 children from becoming infected at all --- or you can pay for a tragically shortened lifetime of treatment for fewer than 50 children.

But the funding bill is now law, which means that no funding can be used to implement the program, and the $30M will revert back to other CDC HIV/AIDS prevention activities.

So where will that money be going? Almost certainly to more than a few programs with a significantly more dubious return-on-investment than Senator Coburn's --- at least if the return you are looking for in your HIV/AIDS prevention program is, you know, preventing HIV/AIDS.

Let's take a tour through the rogue's gallery of past CDC programs, shall we?

First, there's the 'education' programs paid for by the CDC and delivered by the STOP AIDS project in San Francisco (scroll to the bottom of the link):

Got Love? #2 - Flirt / Date / Score
February 10, 2004
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
STOP AIDS Main Office
2128 - 15th Street

Part two of our four part series. Want to flirt with greater finesse and date with more confidence? Who doesn't? Share your expertise in this interactive conversation and you'll hear how others are successful in meeting guys today.

Dirty Thoughts, Part 2
Saturday, April 5, 2003
Location: EROS
Event starts at 4:00 pm

A new 4-part erotic writing workshop. Start by exploring your fantasies and get support for you creative writing process. Open to all skill levels. Limited space, register now. Attendance required at all 4 workshops. Supplies and snacks provided.

In Our Prime: Men For Hire
Thursday, April 10, 2003
Location: STOP AIDS, 2128 15th St.

Joseph Itiel presents practical tips and covers the seven guidelines for safe and friendly relations with escorts. This is an event you won't want to miss!

Flirt, Date, Score
August 13, 2003
7 p.m. – 9 p.m.
STOP AIDS Main Office
2128 - 15th Street
San Francisco

Want to flirt with greater finesse and date with more confidence? Who doesn't? Share your expertise and hear how others are successful in meeting guys and staying safe today.

Now, I'm all for flirting. Just not with my tax dollars, please.

Then there was the Asian Pacific Islanders Drag Contest, funded in part by CDC dollars.

And the AIDS conference that featured actress-singer Jenifer Lewis, who

...sang that Mr. Cheney made her "feel like a natural woman," after alluding to the Monica Lewinsky scandal and describing sex with the vice president.

"It was extremely graphic," said Mr. Miller, who said that he and his wife, fellow activist Jeannie Gibbs — who are both infected with the AIDS virus — walked out of Miss Lewis' performance at the "closing plenary luncheon" of the conference.

"It was risque to the point where it belonged on Bourbon Street," Mr. Miller said. "

Again: not that there's anything wrong with that! But again: not with my tax dollars, please.

Any huge federal program that's handing out grants is bound to give money to dubious causes once in a while (which is in itself an argument against huge federal programs handing out grants). The point isn't to nitpick every program that CDC funds searching for the embarassing ones (and trust me, the ones above are just for starters).

The point is that we expect our Congress to make intelligent choices with the money we send them. The dismal history of the CDC's other HIV/AIDS programs simply serves to underscore the fact that the HIV prevention program proposed by Senator Coburn is clearly and obviously one of the absolute best ways we could choose to spend our tax dollars. The return-on-investment --- both moral, and financial --- is near impossible to beat.

The defunding of the program was dirty politics, plain and simple. But the loser isn't Senator Coburn: it's the children and their families who will be born with a disease they did not need to have.

Write your Senator and Representative, and tell them what you think. And if you want more information, contact Senator Coburn's office, and I'm sure they'll be glad to provide it.