Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Wolf Blitzer Reports

U.S. Surgeon General Announces Detailed National Strategy on How to Prevent Suicides

Aired May 02, 2001 - 20:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, HOST: Tonight, stolen lives: More than 650,000 Americans attempt suicide every year; 30,000 die. I'll speak live with U.S. Surgeon General David Satcher about his new campaign for suicide prevention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Social Security is a challenge now. If we fail to act, it will become a crisis

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Your retirement money: President Bush asks a new commission to find ways to preserve and modernize Social Security. Is Wall Street the answer?

And part two of my interview with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld: As technicians assess the damage to a U.S. surveillance plane, I'll ask him about U.S.-China tensions and reports of tensions here in Washington.

Good evening. I'm Wolf Blitzer, reporting tonight from Washington.

Everyone in the United States probably knows someone who has been touched by suicide. Here's one fact: Experts say more teenagers and young adults die from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, stroke, pneumonia and influenza, and chronic lung disease combined.

Death from suicide is so tragic because often we can't answer the simple question: Why? Today, for the first time, the U.S. surgeon general announced a detailed national strategy on how to prevent suicides, and that's our top story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER (voice-over): Surgeon General David Satcher calls suicide a serious public health problem that is preventable.

DR. DAVID SATCHER, SURGEON GENERAL: Suicide prevention is everybody's business. Suicide affects all demographic groups in America. BLITZER: Seventeen-year-old Maggie Ming says she was depressed for a long time and contemplated killing herself. Her friends urged her to seek help, which she did.

MAGGIE MING, HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT: Now, I'm a lot happier with myself and my surroundings. And I actually like myself as a person now, whereas I thought I was lower than scum. I thought I was the worst possible entity ever put on this Earth.

BLITZER: According to the surgeon general, suicide is the eighth-leading cause of death in the United States, and the third- leading cause of death among 15- to 24-year-olds. There is a suicide death every 17 minutes. Suicide causes twice as many deaths as HIV- AIDS. And for every two homicide victims, three people take their own lives.

IRIS BOLTON, MOTHER OF SUICIDE VICTIM: The stigma has been so enormous people wouldn't talk about it at all, admit that that had happened in their family.

BLITZER: Iris Bolton should know. She lost a 20-year-old son to suicide. Combating the stigma is key to the surgeon general's effort.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: While suicide is a national tragedy, the surgeon general believes strongly that something can be done about it.

Dr. David Satcher joins me now. Dr. Satcher, thanks for joining us.

What is the most important thing people can do to prevent suicide?

SATCHER: I think one of the most important things that we now know is that 90 percent of the time, people who commit suicide are suffering from some form of mental illness or substance abuse disorder. I think the most important thing that people can do is to identify people in need of help, and to make sure that they get the help that they need.

BLITZER: What happens if you suspect that a loved one, someone that -- a friend, a relative is contemplating suicide? What do you do without overreacting and perhaps even making a situation worse?

SATCHER: Well, let me mention several warning signs. In addition to the signs like hopelessness and a feeling of worthlessness, people who are contemplating suicide will often begin to give away valuable things that have been very valuable to them. They will sometimes talk about not wanting to go on living; sometimes even talk about the plans they have made.

The most important thing to do is first, talk to those persons, but also make sure that other people know of their plans. We often talk with teenagers about this, and they say should, I squeal on my friend. Well, the answer is yes. If somebody is talking about take his or her life, that person needs help, and it's your responsibility to make sure that they get the help that they need.

BLITZER: One of the suggestions that you make is that there has to be change in the way suicide is portrayed in the entertainment and the news media world? What do mean by that?

SATCHER: Well, it sort of starts with how we portray mental illness, and I think the stigma surrounding mental illness, the blame that accompanies it also accompanies suicide. For many years, people blamed the person who committed suicide, and looked at that as a great sin. Churches used to say it was a sin. Now, it's tragedy; a tragedy to which we all must respond because we know understand that people who commit suicide were need of help that they often did not get.

BLITZER: You also suggest that there has to be a reduction in the access to lethal weapons, if you will, to what you call, lethal means and methods of self-harm. Do you mean guns?

SATCHER: Yes, but I also mean toxic dosage of medication. If a person is taking medication and knows that those medications could be used to take one's life, make sure you keep them out of the way, especially if they're children or adolescents.

But also guns. If we're talking about guns, the easy access to guns is a major danger to people who may in an impulse take their own lives. But by the same token, if gun owners own guns, they should make sure they keep them locked away, the keep the ammunition separate from the guns.

If they don't, then they're putting their own children and others at risk because often people, in an impulse, will make the decision, at that time, to take their lives. If the weapons are available, the means are available to do that, they're successful; if they're not, you may have time to intervene.

BLITZER: You and your colleagues have spent a lot of time studying suicide. Looking over the span of the past few decades, is the situation getting worse or better?

SATCHER: Well, the overall rate of suicide in this country has really not changed significantly in the last few years; except since 1952, suicide has actually tripled among teenagers. In fact, in the last 20 years, CDC reports in young black males between the ages of 15 and 19, suicide has doubled just in 20 years.

So, in the young population, we're seeing a dramatic increase. In the older population, it's been fairly stable.

BLITZER: Dr. David Satcher, the surgeon general of the United States, thank you so much for joining us.

SATCHER: Delighted to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Thank you.

And let's now turn now to your money; the money you may hope to have during retirement. With the Social Security program facing insolvency in another generation, President Bush today said young workers, quote, "might as well be saving their money in their mattresses." He's named a special panel to come up with ideas to save Social Security, but the ideas he has in mind are drawing opposition.

More now from CNN senior White House correspondent John King.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BUSH: I now have the honor of signing the commission into being.

JOHN KING, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: The new Social Security commission is charged with delivering on a major and controversial Bush campaign promise.

BUSH: Social Security reform must offer personal savings accounts to younger workers who want them.

KING: By that, the president means letting workers direct a small portion of their Social Security payroll taxes into private investment accounts: stocks, bonds, mutual funds. Many Democrats oppose the idea and hope recent turmoil on Wall Street undercuts political support.

REP. RICHARD GEPHARDT (D-MO), MINORITY LEADER: It is a huge fundamental change to privatize it and to allow people to invest their accounts on their own. If you just look at the last year of experience with the stock market, you know that that is a risky idea.

KING: But the commission is stacked with people who back the president's approach, including Democrats like former Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, its co-chairman. If there are no changes to the system, the government projects Social Security will begin paying out more than it takes in in 15 years, and run out of money in the year 2038.

It is the aging of America that is causing the strain. When Social Security was created, the ratio of workers to retirees was 40- 1. It is now 3-1. Social Security is the hallmark of The New Deal, long called the third rail of American politics because the elderly are among the most reliable voters, and the options for improving the program's financial footing could be politically painful: raising the eligibility age, now 67, although the president opposes that; increasing payroll taxes, reducing benefits, and taxing Social Security payments as all other pensions are taxed.

A tough political debate any time, and Mr. Bush wants a report this fall and congressional action before the 2002 elections.

VIN WEBER (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: I don't think this breezes through without a problem. I think it will be a long, arduous process, but I think at the end of the day, the facts are so overwhelmingly on the president's side that to do nothing will become the irresponsible position.

KING: But Republican congressional leaders are already a little nervous. (on camera): Their message to the White House is that if the president wants Social Security debated in a congressional election yea, he first must prove that there are a significant number of Democrats willing to support major changes.

John King, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Meantime, what about your own personal savings for retirement? Well, today, the House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved a pension reform bill. It would boost the tax-deferred contribution limits for both traditional and Roth individual retirement accounts. The IRA limit would increase from $2,000 a year to $5,000 over the next three years. Annual contribution limits on 401(k) plans would also rise from $10,500 to $15,000 in the year 2006.

This is the sixth time the House has passed the popular measures, which have consistently been rejected by the Senate.

Up next: As U.S. technicians inspect the surveillance plane grounded on Hainan Island, I'll discuss the China issue in part two of my interview with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

And later, his money is still making news. New York tries to get some back from pardoned financier Marc Rich.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back.

On China's Hainan Island, U.S. civilian technicians have been checking out the damage to the Navy surveillance plane, which has been on the ground since a collision with a Chinese fighter on April 1st. It's still not clear how or when the plane will be returned. Its crew was held for 11 days after the incident.

Yesterday, we brought you the first part of my interview with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. In part two of our discussion, I began by asking him when U.S. surveillance flights near China will resume.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD RUMSFELD, U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I don't discuss schedules of surveillance flights. The president has said, I have said, Secretary Powell has said that the United States certainly intends to continue its surveillance flights. They're important for the safety of our forces and for our friends and allies. And we are one of many countries that engages in surveillance flights, including China.

BLITZER: There have been some conflicting reports about how much damage to national security was done, because the plane has been on the ground now for weeks, on Hainan Island. Can you tell us how much you think, how much damage? Have you done, have you received a damage assessment report, a worst-case scenario?

RUMSFELD: I -- I could tell you some things and won't obviously. It's not going to be known until we have completed the inspection of the airplane, have the airplane back, have finished the debriefing of the crew. But there -- the crew did a good job in following their checklist to the extent they were able under very difficult circumstances. And yet, there is no question but that some things were compromised.

BLITZER: Some major things or relatively...

RUMSFELD: I don't want to characterize them.

BLITZER: If China were to attack Taiwan, would the United States come to Taiwan's immediate defense?

RUMSFELD: Wolf, you're an expert on this subject. You've -- we've all been around it, and the president made some very direct comments about it recently and left no doubts about what the position of the United States is.

Secretary Cheney -- former Secretary Cheney, Vice President Cheney has made some remarks about it. Secretary Powell has. And our position of our country is clear. It is that we understand the relationship between the Taiwan and the People's Republic of China, and we have, by an act of Congress, made a decision to assure that Taiwan's capabilities are sufficiently strong and robust so that there's not an invitation for force to be used. We expect it to be a peaceful resolution.

BLITZER: Another area that I used to cover much more closely than I do nowadays is the Middle East, and there's been some excitement that was -- was generated as a result of your proposal to remove the U.S. peacekeepers, the soldiers from Sinai, from the multinational force. And Prime Minister Sharon and president of Egypt, President Mubarak, they were surprised by this at this delicate moment to make that kind of proposal.

RUMSFELD: Well, you know, the truth has a certain virtue. I visited with Colin Powell and Condi Rice about it. We've had a unit in the Sinai for I believe close to 20 years. There is not a problem and has not been a problem along that border between Egypt and Israel. A number of countries are part of that, and the president is deeply concerned about the so-called OPTEMPO. That is to say the number of countries U.S. forces are in, and the strain it puts on our forces, the strain it puts on their families. And we have been looking around the world and asking ourselves where can we find ways to reduce the tempo, the pace, the strain on our limited forces.

Obviously, you look at someplace where they've been for 20 years and it doesn't take a genius to suggest that it's proper to ask a question. So raised it with Condi and Colin, and they both said, my goodness, yes, that's a perfectly rational thing, let's do that, let's discuss it.

So I was meeting with Prime Minister Sharon and I raised it, and he was not shocked or thrown off by the question at all. He said, well, we'll certainly be willing to look at that.

And we've not made any proposal to take them out. We've not said we'd take them all out. We've not talked to our other allies. I raised the same thing with President Mubarak, and I suspect that after that process runs its course reasonable people will look at it and will find that there are ways to reduce the forces there by some level. And it may take some time and certainly it'll take a lot of consultation.

But I don't think that the United States has to have forces in every country in the world and I don't think we have to have them in the same place for 20 years at a time.

BLITZER: As you well know, not only from your current tour of duty at the Pentagon but a previous one as well -- and you've worked in the State Department, Middle East special envoy -- there's historically been some tensions between the Defense Department and the State Department. Where you sit is how you see things differently.

You've seem published reports in recent weeks disagreements between you and Secretary Powell.

RUMSFELD: Yeah -- nonsense.

BLITZER: All right.

RUMSFELD: I mean, there are a few reporters around town who seem to think that trying to find a wedge between the two of us is -- would be kind of good fun for good copy. But it's just not true. We talk together several times a day. We've worked together over the years. He was colonel when I was secretary of defense, and I've known him in his other responsibilities, as chief of staff and chairman of the chiefs and assistant to the president for national security affairs.

We're -- we're in close touch. We have different views on things, we learn from each other and enjoy working together.

BLITZER: One final question -- we only have a few seconds. Our military affairs correspondent, Jamie McIntyre, says that he hears certain grumbling, he hears certain grumbling...

RUMSFELD: Yeah.

BLITZER: ... among senior military officers -- admirals, generals and others -- that they're not necessarily being fully included in your top-to-bottom strategic review that you're undertaking.

RUMSFELD: He's asked that same question of me. First of all, it's not a top-to-bottom review. It's quick-and-dirty studies that are -- where we're looking at key priority areas.

Second, the military is intimately involved. The CINCs have all written comments on the papers and the chiefs have been involved. I've probably been in the tank with them six, eight, 10 times on these subjects. The joint staff has had opportunity to participate in the study meetings.

Now, we've got 800 admirals and generals floating around the world, and I'm sure that Jamie can find some who aren't involved. And I can understand their concern that they, when they see, gee, there's a new secretary, I wonder what's going to happen, a new administration, and what's happening (UNINTELLIGIBLE) some mystery.

There is no mystery. We're at the very beginning of the process. You have a few studies, and then the next step down is to receive back the information and see what you think about it. The next step is to talk with the president and see what he thinks about it. The next step is take it back and put it in the so-called "quadrennial review" process of the building, with which you're familiar with, where everybody gets a chance to chop on it. Then it comes back out of there and it's given up to the secretary again and the senior staff. Then it goes over to the Office of Management and Budget in a budget proposal. It goes to the president, then it goes to the Hill.

(LAUGHTER)

It's going to be looked at, chopped on, digested, masticated by everybody in the Earth before it's over.

Tell Jamie he can always find a general or an admiral who feels that way, but by golly, we've sure done everything humanly possible to see that everyone gets a crack at it.

BLITZER: I'm sure he's listening very carefully right now, Mr. Secretary. Thank you so much for joining us.

RUMSFELD: Thank you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

And up next, a deadline passes and still the Screenwriters Guild takes another turn at the bargaining table. And, the White House puts a dimmer switch on the federal government. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Marc Rich may have been pardoned, but his tax troubles are far from over. Today, the state of New York froze a Citibank account Rich had been using to pay his legal fees. Albany is seizing the $5 million bank account and will use the funds to pay down a $137 million tax bill it says Rich owes the state.

And in Hollywood, negotiations with the Writers Guild of America and studio executives press on. Marathon talks ended earlier this morning without conclusion, and a deadline passed. But both sides were back at the table today searching for a resolution. Among the issues: Residuals for work that goes to tape, reruns and overseas.

In State College, Pennsylvania, students at Penn State University are celebrating a plan to enhance racial diversity tonight. This week 500 students gathered to protest scores of racially charged hate mail sent to African-American students, and demanded that the university add more diversity education programs to the curriculum. Today, the college agreed, and it will soon add more black faculty members and a black provost to the administration.

On the leading edge tonight, President Bush is ordering the federal government to cut its energy consumption as much as 10 percent during peak usage hours. Among other things, federal buildings will have to adjust thermostats and dim lights during power emergencies.

The biotech research community revealed today that it can harvest stem cells from adult cadavers. Until now, scientists were using a controversial treatment that included taking the cells from human embryos. Scientists say stem cells may be useful in treating such illnesses as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's.

Up next, I'll open our mailbag. Some passionate feelings out there about the president's decision to go forward with a missile defense system. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Welcome back. Time now to open our mailbag. Lots of reaction to the first part of my interview with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Charles writes from Jupiter, Florida: "If the United States chooses to build a national missile defense system, it will be an incredible assertion of American hegemony that would certainly not be tolerated in such nationalistic states as China, especially considering recent developments between our two countries."

But Karl writes from Columbus, Mississippi: "I think the missile defense system is important and correct. We must wonder why other countries want us unprotected and remember that they have the option of a missile defense system of their own."

Remember, you can e-mail me at wolf@cnn.com. I just might read your comments on the air. And you can read my daily online column and sign up for my daily e-mail previewing our nightly programs by going to our WOLF BLITZER REPORTS Web site, cnn.com/wolf.

Please stay with CNN throughout the night. At 10:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN, the sounds of the death chamber. Audio tapes made during executions in Georgia. Up next, Greta Van Susteren. She's standing by to tell us what she has.

GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, HOST, CNN'S "THE POINT": Wolf, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley and Al Gore: What do all three have in common? Well, stick around. My panel will tell you -- Wolf.

BLITZER: I'll stick around. Thanks, Greta. Tomorrow night, I'll have a rare interview with Senator Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts. Until then, thanks very much for watching. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. "THE POINT WITH GRETA VAN SUSTEREN" begins right now.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com