Money Money Money Money... Money

I was watching the News Hour with Jim Lehrer on PBS when a story came on about HIV/AIDS in the District of Columbia's Black community. Predictably, one of the activists interviewed called for "a massive increase in federal government spending on AIDS in the black community."

Which leads me to wonder: If we were to "fully fund" only the top quarter, say, of initiatives that activists say should be receiving massive amounts of federal funds, how much money would that be in a year? Is that something that could even be managed? Activists tend to call for spending without thinking about all of the other causes (and politics) that are competing for those same dollars, firm in their belief that their crusade should be everyone's highest priority.

But somehow I doubt that we can really spend our way out of all the issues that people have identified.