Senate Proceeding on Jul 30th, 2009 :: 2:29:10 to 2:37:15
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2:29:05 to 2:29:27( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: the clerk: the senator from nevada, mr. ensign, proposes an amendment numbered 1905 modified. mr. ensign: i ask further reading of the amendment be dispensed with. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. ensign: madam president, just to briefly describe my amendment. in my home state of nevada, the unemployment rate has reached

2:29:10 to 2:37:15( Edit History Discussion )
Speech By: John Ensign

2:29:28 to 2:29:48( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: unemployment continue to rise across the country. the stimulus bill that was passed here, the president said it was going to keep unemployment at no 8.3% across the country, and we know it's a lot higher than that everywhere now. this is not just a nevada

2:29:49 to 2:30:09( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: problem but a problem in every state. am country are they are hurting badly. to help out i am offering an amendment because the states have been borrowing federal unemployment fund and they have depleted that fund so i'm offering an amendment to help the states.

2:30:10 to 2:30:30( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: but i'm offering it to do it in a way that's fiscally responsible. my amendment is very simple. it would say that we're going to use out of the stimulus bill, we're going to replenish the unemployment funds that the states are borrowing from and

2:30:31 to 2:30:51( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: where we don't increase the deficit and play any phony numbers games and here to do that. the bill that was sent over here from the house of representatives -- that's basically what it it says, technically, it is not increasing the deficit, but, madam president, if the federal government is borrowing from

2:30:52 to 2:31:12( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: future, probably that will forgive the states of that money in the future, that is going to increase the deficit. mark my words, this congress will say that the money the states are future, because they will have to borrow a lot more next year -- around $7.5 billion now they need to replenish the funds with and next year projected to

2:31:13 to 2:31:33( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: be another $30 billion and we have seen in this congress has given money away to the states. that will be another amount of money we will have to borrow to forgive that debt the states have run up. they will not be able to pay that. right? that's what we assume so at

2:31:34 to 2:31:56( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: least take that money in a fiscally responsible bill the stimulus. the senator from illinois was just on the floor talking, and i listened very carefully to some of the things he was saying. he was saying that if we actually, for instance, the vitter amendment, if we borrow less now it means that our

2:31:57 to 2:32:17( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: deficit is going to be more. well, that just doesn't pass the commonsense test. he is take the money away if the stimulus -- in other words, we borrow less now -- that it's not going to help the economy as much. that was the philosophy behind the stimulus package that by borrowing money, putting that

2:32:18 to 2:32:39( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: government money into the economy, we areoing to help the economy well, there are a certain amount of jobs, it is unarguable that can be created by government spending. i voted for the stimulus bill because i thought a l money was irresponsibly spent and would run up the deficit so

2:32:40 to 2:33:01( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: i was looking more long term not just short term. the problem with continuing and continue telling borrow more and more we have the threat of long-term economic harm. we have the threat of long-term inflation in this country which will be devastating to this economy. under the president's budgets

2:33:02 to 2:33:27( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: this was passed here in the congress, it is projected our national debt will double in five years years. think about that: t the debt borrowed in the history of this country from george washington to george w. bush and that debt is doing to be doubled in five years and tripled in 10

2:33:28 to 2:33:48( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: years thacht is -- in 10 years. that is unsustainable. the states need help to replenish federal unemployment insurance fund. they need that help. we recognize that. but let's do this in a way where we are not borrowing more money from our children's future. that's really what this is about.

2:33:49 to 2:34:09( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: we had former federal chairman alan greenspan talking to our conference the other day at lunch a couple of weeks one of the things that he talked about, one of his big fears he talked about was that the united states is borrowing too much

2:34:10 to 2:34:30( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: money and that can be a future threat to follow of inflation. if we get to the point where other countries decide not to loan us this money anymore, if they quit buying our treasury bills, in other words, our economy falls off a cliff. we don't want to get to that point. that's why we

2:34:31 to 2:34:52( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: taking small steps which can lead to larger steps on being fiscally responsible in this country. every time i hear both sides of the 50eu8, senators from both sides of the aisle talk about being fiscally responsible and yet every time we have a small proposal and here it's

2:34:53 to 2:35:13( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: we can't do that now. we can't do that with this program. the constitute stimulus program is off limits although a large amount of the is stimulus will not be spent for a long time. that was originally supposed to help our economy this year. william, the senator from involving.

2:35:14 to 2:35:35( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: there are signs the recession is slowing down. however, this looks be a completely jobless recovery. that's not what the stimulus bill was supposed toe about. it was supposed to be about creating jobs. we had alternatives that who is created jobs, would have helped the housing industry. the housing industry is what --

2:35:36 to 2:35:57( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: was the program or the part of our economy that drug the rest of the economy down. so we thought we should have fixed housing before we started putting money into all the other projects and all the other government programs. this was rejected by the democrat majority, unfortunately. i still believe we need to hav

2:35:58 to 2:36:19( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: help in the housing industry. senator isakson from georgia has a good proposal, giving a $15,000 tax credit to those who buy a home. states like my state of nevada -- housing market is still devastated. we have huge foreclosure rates, we have large amount of inventory that is still out there. the housing market is starting

2:36:20 to 2:36:41( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: to turn around in some of the other states but it still has so far to go and we could really help the housing market. the bottom be more fiscally responsible future conventions. my amendment today is taking a small step toward that. and, you kno long time ago, all the time when

2:36:42 to 2:37:03( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: i was growing up, if you watch the small amounts of money -- if you watch the $20 bills, the large amounts of money take care of themselves. let' start watching the -- not $7.3 billion is a small amount but around here it is, let's start watching these as of money

2:37:04 to 2:37:15( Edit History Discussion )

John Ensign: trillion deficits we can take care of that and with can start being fiscally responsible to the future generations. so madam president, i urge my colleagues to support this amendment, this commonsense