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| VICE PRESIDENT CHENEY | |
 July 18, 2001  |
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Vice President Cheney discusses
stem cell research, campaign finance reform and his health.
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VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: It's a little hard trying to sort it out up there. Last week they had quite a fight in the House. The bill has passed the Senate but not the House. The president said he'll sign a good bill, and he's laid out some principles that he would like to see embodied in a good piece of legislation. We had some problems with the bill that passed the Senate, but there was the hope that once the House had passed a bill, and it went to conference, they'd be able to come up with a bill that everybody would support. Right now that does not appear to be the case. Of course, the House voted down the rule that would have allowed the bill to come to the floor to be debated. Whether or not we'll ever see one we don't know. JIM LEHRER: Does it matter to you and the president whether you ever see one? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Well, I think a lot of people feel there are problems with campaign finance laws, and the way it works today, but we also think we've got to be careful here not to do something unwise and then rush out and impose restrictions that limit people's ability to participate in the political process. That's part of the genius of our system and just as on the one hand there's an effort to try to limit things like soft dollar contributions -- the president said he'd support a ban on corporate and union soft dollars you want to make sure that you proceed in a way that's fair and equitable and doesn't deny people a legitimate right to participate in the political process, and exactly the way that balance ought to be is a fairly complicated, delicate matter. |
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| Stem cell research | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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JIM LEHRER: Another new subject: Stem cell research. How close is the president to making a decision on that?
JIM LEHRER: That would be the first of next week? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Well, I wouldn't pin it down today let's say between now and September I would guess we'll have a decision. JIM LEHRER: Help us understand the dilemma the president faces in making a decision. How does he see the choices? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: It is a very important and at the same time extremely complex and controversial issue, and I myself have got a 100 percent pro-life record consistently over the time I've been in public office. But there are also important questions being asked about embryonic stem cells derived from embryos that would otherwise be disposed of embryos that were developed through in vitro fertilization, and the suggestion was that those embryos ought to be used as the basis for stem cell research with federal funds used to support that research. The question he has to decide is whether or not federal funds are going to be used for that purpose. It's the kind of research that may offer the solution for some of our worst, most terrible diseases that we are unable to deal with today, but at the same time it raises questions about the sanctity of life, issues of cloning start to work into it. We've seen recently now that there are privately organized operations where they, in fact, are generating embryos strictly for the purpose of destroying them to extract the stem cells. The whole question of adult stem cells research that generally everybody supports, and the question of what kind of manipulations would be appropriate. There are serious ethical questions involved here as well too, and it's a set of issues that we have never had to address as a nation or as a government before, but this technology has taken us down this road.
He's met with some of the premiere ethicists of the country who spend their lives thinking about these kinds of issues. He recognizes the enormous significance of the decision and so he's really dug into it in great depth and talked to a great many people about it. I think he's very close to a decision. And, as I say, I would expect he'll announce it before the summer's over. JIM LEHRER: Is he looking for a compromise between these two these positions, or one or the other, either we're going to do it or not do it? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: It's not like highway money. There's no way you can split the difference; you get your highway and I get my highway. It's these are deeply, deeply significant ethical questions about the future of the race, about medical research, about our ability to deal with horrendous diseases, and at the same time give due regard to the sanctity of human life, and it's appropriate that the president should make the decision; it's also appropriate that he should take plenty of time to make sure he understands all of the ramifications of it, that he's comfortable with the final course he decides upon. |
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| Personal health | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I just have gotten, Jim, so I have to live with it, and it's a small price to pay for the satisfaction I get out of being vice president. It's a great job, and a tremendous opportunity for me and it goes with the turf, so I'm prepared to accept it. JIM LEHRER: It's been two weeks since you had your thing put in your chest. I assume everything's okay? VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: It seems to be working very well; it hasn't gone off yet, so that's the ultimate test I guess… JIM LEHRER: Being Vice President of the United States, are you convinced that the stresses and strains and everything that are involved are not affecting your health in a negative way?
Stress comes from being forced to spend your days in toil that's not enjoyable, and I frankly can't think of anything I'd rather be doing than being Vice President of the United States in this administration, working for this president, under these circumstances. I spent most of my life in public service, then was gone for eight years, and to get a chance to come back now, which I never thought I'd do, it's sort of my fifth tour, if you will, in government, third time in the White House, that has really been a remarkable experience; I wouldn't have missed it for the world. JIM LEHRER: Mr. Vice President, thank you very much. VICE PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: Thank you. |
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JIM
LEHRER: New subject: Campaign finance reform has been pronounced dead
in the House and I assume you and the president would like for it to
stay that way, is that a correct reading of your attitude on these particular
bills?
VICE
PRESIDENT DICK CHENEY: I think he's very close. I would expect if things
go as planned probably sometime after he gets back from his current
trip to Europe he'll be ready to make an announcement.
The
president has spent a lot of time with advocates of the research, with
folks who are adamantly opposed to it because of their religious beliefs
or because they're very strongly of the pro-life view that this is the
destruction of life. 
JIM
LEHRER: Finally on the personal side, you had laryngitis, you know,
earlier in the week, and you were deluged with questions, "Are
you okay, Mr. Vice President?". Have you learned just to kind of
accept the fact that there's no such thing as a mild cold for you is
that just part of your life now?
