How Hillary saved millions of lives

Listening to Bill Clinton's talk about his beloved wife at the Democratic National Convention the other night, I was shocked at great number of accomplishments he attributed to her.

Was this the same Hillary Clinton I had been observing and investigating since 1992?

In my cynicism, had I actually overlooked her heroic and selfless efforts to make other people's lives better in America and around the world?

While I haven't had the time to fact-check all of Bill Clinton's boasts about his wife, one in particular got my attention: He credited his wife, in her role as secretary of state, with increasing the number of people in foreign countries receiving life-saving treatment for HIV by 3.4 million without increasing government spending by making it more cost-efficient and advocating for the purchase of cheaper generic drugs. The result, Bill Clinton said, is millions of people on another continent whose lives were saved.

"You don't know any of those 3.4 million people but I guarantee they know you," Clinton said in the speech. "They know you because they see you as making their lives matter."

Think of it! Millions of lives saved! If that were true, it would certainly be worth noting in his speech. In fact, it would be just the sort of accomplishment Hillary's critics claim simply don't exist.

So rather than fact-check dozens and dozens of incredible claims made by Bill Clinton, I decided to look into just this one.

As I began looking at the history of this claim, I found the number had changed significantly over the years. And it didn't go up. It went down!

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In 2012, Hillary Clinton wrote a piece of the Huffington Post in which she said the number was actually 4.5 million, not 3.4 million. Was Bill shortchanging her? Did his speechwriter get it wrong? Did Hillary's ghostwriter fumble the facts?

Here's what she wrote Oct. 1 of that year: "All this work is delivering real results. With our partners, we're providing life-saving HIV treatment to 4.5 million people – an increase of more than 160 percent since 2008. In the same time period, the number of people receiving malaria-prevention measures is up to 58 million, an increase of 132 percent. The maternal mortality rate in our partner countries has dropped 15 percent in the past four years, and it's on track to drop a total of 26 percent by next year."

But then I dug a little deeper.

You know what I found?

This program to provide treatment to HIV patients using cheaper generic drugs wasn't her idea at all. The program didn't start with her tenure as secretary of state, nor Barack Obama's tenure as president.

This extraordinary life-saving program for which both Hillary and her husband credited her actually began during the administration of George W. Bush. In fact, by May 2006, Bush's State Department had already submitted a complete report on the program – including the ingenious idea to use cheaper generic drugs, thus saving hundreds of millions of dollars.

Check it out for yourself.

"Through December 2005, 15 new generic formulations received approval from HHS/FDA under the expedited review process established in May 2004, including four pediatric formulations," said the 2006 report to Congress. "By late 2005, at least four focus countries had begun to import HHS/FDA-approved generics, and FY 2006 data to date indicates this group will continue to expand. As a side benefit, the process developed for PEPFAR (President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief – not Obama's plan, but Bush's) has also expedited availability of some generic versions of ARVs for which U.S. patent protection has expired."

So there you go.

I never heard George W. Bush boast about this initiative. I never heard Colin Powell take credit for saving millions of lives with the program. I never heard Condoleezza Rice make any such claims.

But, more than 10 years later, Bill and Hillary are.

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