Ronald Reagan

===Response to the AIDS epidemic===
[[File:NYC 1987 let the record show.png|thumb|upright=0.85|alt=A 1987 ACT UP art installation quoting Reagan on AIDS with a blank slate to represent silence|Reagan has been criticized for his delayed and muted response to the AIDS epidemic. This 1987 art installation by [[ACT UP]] quotes Reagan on AIDS with a blank slate, representing total silence.]]

The [[AIDS epidemic]] began to unfold in 1981,{{sfn|Gellin|1992|p=24}} and AIDS was initially difficult to understand for physicians and the public.{{sfn|Kazanjian|2014|p=353}} As the epidemic advanced, according to White House physician and later physician to the president, brigadier general John Hutton, Reagan thought of AIDS as though "it was the measles and would go away". The October 1985 death of the President's friend [[Rock Hudson]] affected Reagan's view; Reagan approached Hutton for more information on the disease. Still, between September 18, 1985, and February 4, 1986, Reagan did not mention AIDS in public.{{sfn|Cannon|2000|p=731}}

In 1986, Reagan asked [[C. Everett Koop]] to draw up a report on the AIDS issue. Koop angered many evangelical conservatives, both in and out of the Reagan administration, by stressing the importance of sex education including condom usage in schools.{{sfn|Cannon|2000|pp=731–733}} A year later, Reagan, who reportedly had not read the report,{{sfn|Koop|1991|p=224}} gave his first speech on the epidemic when 36,058 Americans had been diagnosed with AIDS, and 20,849 had died of it.{{sfn|Shilts|2000|p=596}} Reagan called for increased testing (including routine testing for marriage applicants) and mandatory testing of select groups (including federal prisoners).<ref>{{cite news|newspaper=[[The New York Times]]|title=Reagan Urges Wide AIDS Testing But Does Not Call for Compulsion|first=Phillip M.|last=Boffey|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1987/06/01/us/reagan-urges-wide-aids-testing-but-does-not-call-for-compulsion.html|date=June 1, 1987}}</ref> Even after this speech, however, Reagan remained reluctant to publicly address AIDS.{{sfn|Cannon|2000|loc=chapter 22}}

Scholars and AIDS activists have argued that the Reagan administration largely ignored the [[AIDS crisis]].{{sfn|Lucas|2009|pp=478–479}}{{sfn|Francis|2012|p=290}}{{sfn|Kim|Shin|2017|pp=518–519}} [[Randy Shilts]] and [[Michael Bronski]] said that AIDS research was chronically underfunded during Reagan's administration, and Bronski added that requests for more funding by doctors at the [[Centers for Disease Control and Prevention]] were routinely denied.{{sfn|Shilts|2000|p=xxii}}<ref>{{cite web |url=http://forward.com/news/7046/rewriting-the-script-on-reagan-why-the-president |title=Rewriting the Script on Reagan: Why the President Ignored AIDS |last=Bronski |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Bronski |date=November 14, 2003 |website=[[The Forward]] |access-date=March 13, 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230116112651/https://forward.com/news/7046/rewriting-the-script-on-reagan-why-the-president/ |archive-date=January 16, 2023}}</ref> In a September 1985 press conference (soon after Hollywood celebrity Rock Hudson had announced his AIDS diagnosis) Reagan called a government AIDS research program a "top priority", but also cited budgetary constraints.{{sfn|Brands|2015|pp=654, 656}} Between the fiscal years of 1984 and 1989, federal spending on AIDS totaled $5.6&nbsp;billion. The Reagan administration proposed $2.8&nbsp;billion during this time period, but pressure from congressional Democrats resulted in the larger amount.<ref>{{cite book |last=Collins |first=Robert |year=2007 |title=Transforming America: Politics and Culture During the Reagan Years |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |isbn=978-0-231-12400-3|page=138}}</ref>