Nevada Senator speaks in Le Mars, denies presidential aspirations

(Sentinel photo by Magdalene Landegent) Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., shakes Henry Beitelspacher's hand Monday at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor during Ensign's meet-and-greet visit in Le Mars. Daniel Landsness, left, also met Ensign, saying he wanted to now how young people could get more involved in the Republican party. Ensign came to tout the party's strengths, denying aspirations to run for president...yet. [Click to enlarge]

"When you come to Iowa, there's a lot of speculation," Ensign said, regarding the supposition this visit is an early campaign stop for 2012.

"I am not running for president, but speculation helps get more of the message out," he added. "I've just tried to raise my national profile, and that's helping to get the message out of some of the things I was talking about today."

Ensign stated he came to Iowa foremost because he was invited.

But when asked if he would ever consider running for President of the United States in the near future, Ensign said, "Never say never, because, you know, it's just bad policy."

The Nevada senator was raised by a single mother, and later adopted at the age of 15 by his stepfather. Ensign went on to work as a veterinarian. He never gave politics much thought until, in 1994, he disagreed with the direction the country was going and set out to do something about it.

"People were talking about nationalizing our health care systems, our deficits were starting to go up, taxes were going up, so back in 1994, I ran for office for the very first time," Ensign said.

Ensign ended up winning that Nevada state congress election by a narrow margin, and by 2001, he was elected to the U.S. Senate on his second attempt.

The senator referred to the "principles" that drew him to become a member of the Republican Party, and how lately those principles had diminished.

"When Ronald Reagan came along, he talked about limited government and thinking about the next generation and not burdening them with this huge debt," Ensign said. "He encouraged more personal responsibility and understanding that people make better decisions with their own money than the government would make with that money. Those were the principles that attracted a lot of moderates, democrats, and the independents to the Republican Party."

Ensign said that during the early 2000s, the Republican Party wavered from those principles, something he attributes to people leaving the Republican side and losing the last couple election cycles.

"I believe that what the Democrats are doing now, in dramatically taking our country to the left, gives us a golden opportunity to get back those core principles and become the majority party again," Ensign said. "We then need to take those core principles and apply them to the problems of today."

Health care

Ensign believes the United States health care system is in a crisis mode.

"The problem in the U.S. is really a question of cost," Ensign said, "and also, we don't encourage people to make good choices with their lives. In other words, somebody who smokes pays the same premium as somebody who doesn't smoke, and yet it costs about $1,400 to $1,500 more a year to insure a smoker than a non-smoker."

Ensign strongly opposes President Obama's plan for nationalizing health care, saying that if the U.S. spends $2 trillion a year on health care, and we are able to make significant percentage cuts as some businesses have done, we could reward people that have lower premiums for making healthier life choices.

K-12 education

Ensign said our K-12 educational system, which is ranked second worst in the world, is "unacceptable."

"Education is being called the new civil rights, and I believe it actually is," Ensign said. "If we don't have the finest educated kids in America, they're not going to be able to compete in this 21st century. As fast as things are changing, they need a great education."

Ensign believes the problem is that there is no competition among schools to attract students.

He emphasized how choice in where to attend school, rather than zoned districts, would yield opportunities to reform our K-12 system.

"We could actually start paying good teachers more money, because that's one of the ways you attract good teachers," Ensign suggested. "The other thing is, you could maybe develop a system where you tell a bad teacher, 'Hey, go do something else. We don't want you ruining our kids' education.'"

Keeping Guantanamo Bay open

Ensign, along with three other senators, was given a tour of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp on May 15.

"It isn't the prisoners who are abused down there, it's our men and women in uniform that are abused. It's remarkable what they put up with."

Ensign spoke at length on why he disagreed with President Obama's plan to suspend operations of the prison camp and shut it down within a year, noting the Senate's 90 to 6 vote to reject the president's order.

"If you take [closing Guantanamo Bay] to its logical conclusion, that means you're bringing these people to the United States and some of them are going to get out and be on American soil," Ensign said.

Ensign explained that we have already freed some detainees from Guantanamo Bay, and those left there are even more dangerous.

"We're talking about mass-murderers here. How many Charles Mansons of the world do you want to let out and only have a 14 percent recidivism rate?" he said.

Other topics

Ensign's has opposed agricultural subsidies in the past.

"You've got to remember, I come from a state where there's not a lot of farming, and none of our farmers get any agricultural subsidies," said the Nevada senator. "So when you come from a state that doesn't get that, you don't think it's fair for your taxpayers to subsidize other people doing that, so that's the reason I've always voted against it."

Ensign also expressed his wish for the Republican Party to involve more women and minorities, as well as reach out to the younger generation through the use of technology.

Ice cream and making a difference

Along with Ensign's political views, Le Mars natives also learned about a self-admitted shortcoming of the senator.

"Ice cream is my weakness - just ask my wife," Ensign laughed. "I'm glad they chose this place for me to come today."

Ensign also found a new favorite flavor after trying Blue Bunny's Bunny Tracks ice cream for the first time.

"It's almost like every time you bite in, you get a different flavor," Ensign said. "Can I have about a gallon of that to go?"

Ensign ended his brief stop in Le Mars by explaining why he thinks he can make a difference as a member of the nation's current minority political party.

"We can take our schools back, we can have the kind of health care system we need in this country, we can have an energy policy where we're no longer dependent on foreign oil, but we actually produce American energy," Ensign said. "All of us together have a responsibility to make the difference we're called to make."