Magic May Resign From AIDS Panel Post : Health: The basketball star attacks the Bush Administration for lack of funding and failure to promote more aggressive education efforts.

WASHINGTON —  Earvin (Magic) Johnson, President Bush’s appointee to the National Commission on AIDS, has threatened to resign from the panel and declared that he “definitely” will not endorse Bush’s bid for reelection.

The former Los Angeles Lakers basketball star, who will compete as a member of the U.S. “dream team” at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona, Spain, attacked the Bush Administration’s response to the AIDS epidemic in an interview broadcast late Sunday with Cable News Network.

“Every time we ask for more funding or adequate funding, we get shot down or turned down by the President,” Johnson said in the CNN interview.

“Whether it’s care, hospice, housing or whatever, we just can’t get the funding. We have the plan, but we can’t implement the plan because we don’t have the funding, so it’s really frustrating. . . . You’re going up against a brick wall. You can’t go on. We’re at a point where we can only go this far and that’s it.”

The White House said it had no comment on Johnson’s remarks.

Johnson’s comments echoed frustrations expressed two weeks ago by his fellow commissioners, who blasted the Administration in a meeting with Health and Human Services Secretary Louis W. Sullivan and other federal health officials.

The federal government’s AIDS budget totals $1.9 billion for the current fiscal year. The figure, which includes money spent on research, care and education, has been characterized as insufficient by many in the AIDS community.

“You know, it’s more frustrating for the other commission members because they’ve been on for a long time,” Johnson said in his televised interview.

Asked if he had decided to resign, Johnson replied: “Pretty much so. I’ll probably make that announcement soon, when I get back.”

The 15-member commission was created by federal statute to provide advice on devising national strategy for dealing with the AIDS epidemic. Its members are appointed by Congress and the White House.

Last September, after two years of work, the commission released a major report containing more than two dozen recommendations. They included proposals for a national AIDS prevention plan, universal health care coverage, and significant reforms in Medicaid to extend coverage to all low-income people suffering from the disease.

In a meeting with Sullivan and other federal health officials two weeks ago, commission members accused the Administration of ignoring the report and failing to implement any of its recommendations.

Johnson also assailed the Administration for not promoting more aggressive AIDS education efforts. “

Johnson, asked whom he would support in the upcoming presidential election, replied: “It definitely won’t be the President.”