By
The Associated Press
DANVILLE, Ky - Republican Dick Cheney and Democrat Joseph Lieberman disagreed firmly but politely last night about military readiness, tax cuts and the future of Social Security in a gentlemanly debate of campaign understudies.
Sitting a few feet apart around a small table, the vice presidential candidates agreed that President Slobodan Milosevic should give up power in Yugoslavia after an election loss, but both opposed the use of American troops to force him out.
In a debate that ranged broadly over numerous issues, Lieberman, a two-term Connecticut senator, said Republicans want to "raid the Medicare trust fund to pay for their tax cuts." But Cheney said there was more than enough money to go around, and it is "totally reasonable" to give relief to all taxpayers.
The argument being that "somehow ... all of it is going to tax cuts isn't true," Cheney said of the huge surpluses forecast over the next decade.
The two men sparred as they sat together for their only debate of the fall campaign. The atmosphere on a specially constructed stage at Centre College seemed more relaxed than Tuesday night when presidential candidates Al Gore and George W. Bush met in Boston for the first of their three scheduled encounters.
Each man pledged to avoid personal attacks. Cheney took that one step further. "I promise not to bring up your singing," he said to Lieberman.
That drew laughter and a swift rebuttal. "And I promise not to sing," said Lieberman.
The two men debated in a White House race that is as close as any in the past four decades. Bush and Gore are separated by only a point or two in most polls, pointing to a suspenseful final month of the campaign.
Asked by moderator Bernard Shaw about a public uprising in Yugoslavia designed to force out Milosevic, Lieberman and Cheney both said they hoped he would surrender power, but ruled out the use of American troops. Lieberman said a U.S.-led bombing campaign last year had halted Milosevic's aggression.
Cheney hearkened back to Tuesday night's debate. "There appears to be underway an effort to get the Russians involved," the former defense secretary said. "Governor Bush suggested exactly that ... and Al Gore pooh-poohed it," he added. "But now it's been reported in the press that in fact that is exactly what we're doing, that Governor Bush was correct in his assessment and his recommendation."
Cheney added the situation was an opportunity to test President Vladimir Putin of Russia. "We ought to find out whether he is indeed committed to democracy, whether he is committed to support the forces of freedom and democracy."
The running mates reviewed well-worn campaign disagreements over Social Security.
Lieberman said he and Gore have a proposal that would guarantee benefits to current recipients through at least 2054. He conceded that he had recently investigated suggestions that individuals be allowed to invest some of their own funds. "Sometimes you have to dig deep to find out if there's oil in the well. I drilled into that, and the deeper I got, the drier the well became," he said.
Bush has called for allowing younger workers to take control over investment of two percent of their own Social Security payroll taxes, a step he says would increase their total investment returns. Cheney endorsed that, and said Gore's proposal contained no overall reform to safeguard the future of the retirement program.
When it came to defense readiness, Cheney said there has been an erosion during the eight years of the Clinton administration, and the Pentagon was "overcommitted and under-resourced."
"With all due respect, this administration has a bad track record," he said, citing reports that some units were only permitted to conduct live firing exercises twice a year.
Lieberman replied that the United States was "ready to meet any commitment that might arise," and scolded Cheney for his comments in the midst of a political campaign.
The two men reprised comments made Tuesday night by the presidential candidates when the topic turned to RU-486, an abortion pill recently approved by the government for use in the United States.
Cheney said the FDA had already acted, and the only issue was whether the drug was safe. He said he and Bush are "pro-life," and the Texas governor would look for ways to "reach across the divide to reduce abortion."
Lieberman signaled his support for the FDA decision, and said there were fundamental differences between the two tickets on abortion.
"Al Gore and I will respect a woman's right to choose. And our opponents will not," he said.
