John Ensign

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the order for the quorum call be rescinded.

Mr. President, I rise today to deliver a very difficult speech. This will be my farewell speech to the Senate. Serving as Nevada's 24th Senator has truly been the greatest professional privilege of my life. Growing up with a single mom in very humble surroundings, I simply never imagined that one day I would end up as a Member of such an august body.

Unfortunately, the amazing experiences that stem from the more than 10 years of my Senate service cannot be summed up in one single speech. I owe a humble thank you to many people who helped to get me here and who have helped me serve effectively, from campaign volunteers, staff, and donors, to some of the best people with whom I have ever worked, my Senate staff. I cannot thank you enough for the honor of the past many years. Each of you has helped me to achieve more than my individual talents alone could have ever accomplished. When I look back over my time, both here and in the House of Representatives, I am very proud of the many accomplishments that we together have been able to achieve. I wish to take a moment to mention a few.

The beauty of the State of Nevada has been greatly enhanced and protected for the enjoyment of future generations because of my work in authoring the Southern Nevada Public Land Management Act and several other important lands bills. Because of these lands bills, Nevada has been able to

keep over $3 billion that has been raised from land sales in southern Nevada. This is money that did not have to come out of the U.S. Treasury.

In the past, BLM land; that is, the public land in Nevada, was exchanged for sensitive land around the State. But as a result of the lands bills we worked on, we were able to, instead, auction this BLM land, raising far more money for the State of Nevada than the land exchanges ever were able to do. This land revenue has been used to purchase sensitive land to protect it for future generations, but also to construct over 100 beautiful parks and trails in southern Nevada. I cannot tell you how proud I am when I drive around Las Vegas and see so many families enjoying these beautiful areas. These lands bills have made the great quality of life we enjoy in Nevada that much better.

Additionally, for those in northern Nevada, my love for Lake Tahoe has been evident throughout the years. I have worked hard to ensure that the beauty of those tranquil waters and surroundings will be just as beautiful decades from now as they are today, and our lands bills helped to achieve this goal. Through this legislation, hundreds of millions of dollars have been devoted to preserve its ecosystem, and important fuel reduction projects around our State will help prevent catastrophic wildfires that so threaten the future of our State and its breathtaking landscape.

Additionally, I have been a passionate advocate for education reform. Our lands bills have directed millions of dollars to Nevada schools as an endowment our State will benefit from for many years yet to come. I thank Senators Reid and Bryan for their cooperation in helping draft this legislation that so greatly benefits our State. I also thank the folks on my staff, especially John Lopez, who worked so hard to turn these pieces of legislation into law.

Speaking of legislation that became law, I wish also to highlight another accomplishment of which I am so proud.

As the only bipartisan provision in the so-called ObamaCare bill, Senator Tom Carper and I worked against some powerful interest groups to get the Healthy Behaviors Act added to the health reform bill.

Our provision was modeled after efforts by Safeway in the private sector to both improve health care quality and to reduce the cost of health care. Essentially, our provision rewards people in the form of lower health care premiums for making healthy choices, such as quitting smoking. If we as Americans continue to eat too much, exercise too little, and to smoke, it really does not matter what kind of health care reform we enact in this country; costs will continue to escalate. I hope this provision will highlight the individual contribution we can all make to reduce our health care costs.

Certainly this legislation would not have become law if it were not for the spectacular job Michelle Spence from my office did. As I mentioned earlier, I simply cannot list the number of things or the number of people on my staff who have helped me with legislation. We have accomplished a lot. I wish I could do it in just one speech, but it is not possible. I could speak at length about my fight for lower taxes and individual freedoms, protection of constitutional rights, the dignity of our service men and women, education reform, and so much more, but there is not enough time. I hope my voting record and legislative record in the Senate will continue to speak for me long after I have left this Chamber. I would like to speak, though, about a few observations I have made through the course of my time here.

When I first ran for office back in 1994, I was rather naive. I was also very idealistic. I simply wanted to make a difference in this great country. Throughout the years, I may have lost my naivete, but I never lost my idealism. I still strongly believe the United States is the greatest country in the history of the world, and it is worth fighting for and worth protecting.

I will leave this place knowing there are some really outstanding people here who are just as idealistic or maybe more so than I ever was, and they are willing to take the tough political votes that are necessary to save this country from total bankruptcy. My prayer is that more people will join them in that courage. Our children and our grandchildren deserve to have the same country we enjoyed, and it is up to the House, the Senate, and the White House to stand together with the American people to save the future of the United States from self- destruction.

When I first arrived in the Senate, I observed several people who were so caught up in their own self-importance and busyness that arrogance literally dripped from them. Unfortunately, they were blind to it, and everyone could see it but them. When one takes a position of leadership, there is a very real danger of getting caught up in the hype surrounding that status. Oftentimes, the more power and prestige a person achieves, the more arrogant a person can become.

As easy as it was for me to view this in other people, unfortunately, I was blind to how arrogant and self-centered I had become. I did not recognize that I thought mostly of myself. The worst part about this is that I even tried not to become caught up in my own self-importance. Unfortunately, the urge to believe in it was stronger than the power to fight it. This is how dangerous the feeling of power and adulation can be.

My caution to all of my colleagues is to surround yourselves with people who will be honest with you about how you really are and what you are becoming, and then make them promise to not hold back no matter how much you may try to prevent them from telling you the truth. I wish I had done this sooner, but this is one of the hardest lessons I have had to learn. I believe that if I had learned this lesson earlier, I would have prevented myself from judging two of my colleagues when I had no place to do so.

When I was chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee, I was confronted with the personal issues facing Senator Larry Craig and Senator Ted Stevens. Following Larry's admission and Ted's guilty verdict, I too believed in the power of my leadership position, and I called on both of them to resign. I sincerely struggled with those decisions afterward, so much so that I went to each of them a few weeks afterward and admitted what I did was wrong, and I asked both of them for forgiveness. Each of these men was gracious enough to forgive me even though publicly I did not show them the same grace. I am very grateful to both of these men. When I announced my personal failure 2 years ago, Larry Craig was one of the first to call and to express his support. I truly cannot tell you what that meant then and what it means to me today.

The purpose of me speaking about this is to humbly show that in life a person understands mercy a lot more when they need it and when it is shown to them. Again, this is a hard lesson I have had to learn, but I hope I can now show mercy to people who come into my life who truly need it.

As I conclude, I have a few others I want to thank.

My colleague from the State of Nevada, Senator Reid. I ran against Senator Reid in 1998. He beat me by a little over 400 votes. Afterward, 2 years later, when I was fortunate enough to win the election, Senator Reid and I sat down and we kind of made a pact between us that we were going to get along even though we were of different parties, we were going to put the past behind us, and we were going to work together for the people of the State of Nevada. A funny thing happened along the way over these last 10-plus years: Senator Reid and I developed a friendship--two people with opposite voting records, opposite views on major national issues, but we worked together on a lot of issues that affected our State. A friendship formed between our staffs, and a true friendship formed between Senator Reid and myself. And for that, I want to thank him.

To my Senate colleagues, I would like to take a moment to apologize for what you have had to go through as a result of my actions. I know many of you were put in difficult situations because of me, and for that I sincerely apologize.

My wife Darlene, who has been through so much with me and has fought through so many struggles, is owed more than I could ever repay. I do not deserve a woman like her, but I love her, and I am so grateful the Lord has put her in my life.

Our children, Trevor, Siena, and Michael, have never known anything other than their dad leaving each week to come back to Washington, DC, for my work. All three of them are incredible, and it has been a blessing and a privilege just to be their dad.

I have also been very blessed with a great set of parents who have stood by me through thick and thin, and also the rest of my extended family. I also have wonderful friends who have been there with me and my family through the highs and the lows.

Lastly, most importantly, I want to thank God for allowing me to be here. I have been encouraged by some not to mention God because it looks hypocritical because of my own personal failings, but I would argue that I have not mentioned him enough. I am glad the Lord not only forgives, but he actually likes it when we give Him thanks. So, Lord, thank you for all you have done in my life. I hope I can do better in the future. I hope I can learn to love You with all my heart, soul, and to love others as myself.

My colleagues, I bid you farewell. Know that you will all be in my prayers.

I yield the floor, and I suggest the absence of a quorum.

The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Blumenthal.) The clerk will call the roll.

Mr. President, I say hello to my good friend from Delaware. He made some very good comments. I want to follow up and talk about this debate we are having.

The Senator from Tennessee, Senator Corker, talked about the need to forget about whether you are a Republican or a Democrat and think about what is best for the country, and that is what we should be doing right now.

People around the country understand we have a serious debt problem. Spending has been run up under Republicans and Democrats. People can blame whichever party they want, but the reality is we now have a $14 trillion national debt. This year alone, $1.6 trillion is how much more we are going to spend than we take in. That is 40 cents, or a little over 40 cents, out of every dollar we are spending this year we are borrowing from countries like China. That is such a dangerous thing to do, because we are now dependent on other countries and our economy is on very shaky ground. Everyone in this body understands this is completely unsustainable.

Let's look at the path the President has set us on as far as his budget is concerned. If we took up his budget, this year alone we will spend about $250 billion in interest on our national debt. That is kind of like having a credit card and you are spending $250 billion in interest on that credit card. If we follow the President's plan over the next 10 years, that $250 billion will go to almost $900 billion a year. That is more than Social Security, more than Medicare, and more than national defense. That is why this is completely unsustainable.

So now we are in a debate over a few billion dollars compared to trillions of dollars? It is a drop in the bucket. That is why I believe it is important for both sides to get this behind us so we can focus on the much larger issues.

I have a 100-percent pro-life voting record. I believe very strongly that life is precious; that God created each of us in his image, and that life should be protected. But we have to face reality. The Democrats are in control of the Senate and in control of the White House. There is no way they are going to allow Planned Parenthood, which is the largest abortion provider in the United States--and I disagree with what they do--the Democrats will never allow us to defund Planned Parenthood while they are in charge. So we have to look at what we can do. What is achievable?

Right now, I think one of the biggest moral issues we face in this country is the debt. What we are doing to our children and grandchildren is handing them a country they cannot afford. The taxes will have to be too high. We could default on our debt and end in a depression which is worse than the Great Depression simply because this body, the body on the other side of the Capitol, and the White House have spent too much money for too long. We have spent money we do not have.

Next year's budget and the debt ceiling are much bigger issues than we are dealing with here. We don't need to shut down the government. We just need to sit down, make the compromises necessary so we can move this process forward and get to the much larger issues on spending and debt.

We have seen in the news that Portugal, Greece, and Ireland have had serious problems. They have actually had their debt downgraded to almost junk status. One of the countries is actually considered junk bond status. The others have now had their bonds seriously downgraded. What does that mean? That means they are paying higher interest rates.

Yesterday, the EU raised their interest rates. The European Union raised their interest rates because of fears of inflation. Here in the United States, our Federal Reserve is keeping interest rates low. But we know inflation is coming, and eventually they are going to have to raise interest rates because of inflation and overspending by the United States. What does a rise in interest rates mean to the average American? It means that the home mortgage is going to go up.

Remember, a lot of Americans have these adjustable rate mortgages. So the next time they refinance those mortgages, their payments will be higher. They are already having trouble meeting these payments.

What does that mean for job creation? The small business owner who wants to get a loan will have to pay higher interest rates. That affects the cost of capital and whether they may be able to even start a business in the first place. It will hurt job creation right in the middle of this very little, very delicate bit of job recovery that we are having in the United States.

This spending and the debt is not some esoteric argument. It is real and it affects real people's lives. It isn't

something we can put off for another 3, 4, 5 years. We must deal with it now. We know that entitlements are the biggest part of the budget. Yes, discretionary is important. We have to deal with discretionary and we have to deal with defense. We overspend in defense in so many wasteful programs, but the big issue is going to be entitlement spending.

Congressman Ryan put out a very bold budget the other day--the first person to come forward with a bold proposal to deal with entitlement spending in this country. The President's debt commission put out a proposal, but the President, unfortunately, ignored his own debt commission and didn't put any of their recommendations in his budget. But both Republicans and Democrats are going to have to deal with this spending problem--this spending binge we have been on--otherwise we are not going to have the same United States of America we have all been enjoying our entire lives. We are literally going to become an economy that cannot exist the way we exist today because we cannot afford it. Our debt will literally collapse the economy of the United States.

A recent study came out, done by two incredible economists named Rogoff and Reinhart. These are viewed by both sides of the aisle as well-respected studies. They studied sovereign debt over the last 200 years of about 64 countries. What they found is any time the debt reaches 90 percent of the economy, or 90 percent of the GDP, it causes a net decrease of about 30 percent of economic growth going forward.

Those are numbers. But what does it mean? It means a loss of jobs. In the United States, we have over a million jobs that will be lost, that would otherwise be created. So this is real stuff. Where are we in the United States? Currently, we are about 94 percent of GDP. So we are already there, and it is going to get worse and worse.

That is why this debate we are having over spending is so critical, and critical that we get it under control. We need to forget about which party is going to have a political advantage. I am one of those Senators--and there are quite a few of us--who is not running for reelection. Everybody in this body needs to forget about whether they get reelected and do what is right for the country. It is so critical right now that we put our country first.

House Republicans have sent over a proposal that would do a couple of things. One, it would fund the troops. Let's not let our military come to work and not get paid. That would be ridiculous. Let's at least fund the troops and pass this 1-week spending proposal that would fund the government. It does cut $12 billion out. The only significant rider in there is the DC abortion rider that says DC can have funds to provide abortions. This is something that was in law and that President Obama signed, in a bill that many Democrats on the other side have signed, so it should not be that controversial.

In the meantime, since we have agreed on the spending number, we can work out some of these other controversial things in the next week. I believe that is the right thing to do to keep the government open, so people can continue to get their paychecks, so people can continue to visit national parks, and on and on and on. I think we all know the problems if the government shuts down.

I think it is critical that we start doing what is right for the country instead of what is right for somebody's reelection. Let's sit down and make the serious and tough choices so we can put this country on the right path.

Mr. President, I yield the floor.