listen to senator john ensign's contribution to the health care bill. >> this is amendment number c-10, it has to do with transparencies and czars. we are now facing a situation where there's almost a shadow cabinet that's being developed. it started slipping in there with the czar here and a czar there. >> she found out that she has tumors in her belly. they are growing. >> i guess i would ask what the situation is in terms of income eligibility. >> she needs to get this operation quickly. >> this is amendment number c-10. it has to do with transparencies and czars. >> she has no insurance. >> us as neighbors helping people that need our help. >> there are charitable organizations. there are hospitals here who do provide charity care. >> well, you just saw it. the republicans have no solutions. that's all you need to know as an american. all this talk about, well, we tried to work with the democrats and it's all their bill and there's no bipartisanship. show up with a plan, folks, over on the conservative ledger. you're making all of us think you just don't care about people, that it'

ensign: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. ensign: mr. president, just a couple other point before the vote that i want to make. some folks have questioned why we need the travel promotion act. they say that, you know, tourism will take care of itself and that this is not a role for the federal government. onof the reasons i remember for years why i wanted to go to australiaas because australia advertised in the united states, talking about the various places, whether it was the great barrier reef and the ce about a dive, some of the bet in the world, or showing sydney and some of the sights o sydney australia or car yaws other -- the gorgeous beaches they have in australia. but the united states and our resources here are so vast for people to come and see, to not tell folks of the world what we have here and -- or to remind them of what we have, i think, is a disservice to our country because if we remind them, if we showed them the pictures, and whether in brochures or in internet advertising or in television advertising, whatever the

and senator john ensign is back in the news.n hard at work trying to seep back into public life after admitting this summer to an affair that then work forward him, whom he then had his parents pay off and whose teenage son mysteriously ended up on the republican party's payroll during his mother's affair with the senator. since then senator ensign has kept a very low profile. he's refused to answer most questions about the affair, the payments or anything else. so it was a surprise this week when senator ensign surfaced. he issued -- he introduced, excuse me, 30 separate amendments to the health care bill. his leaving no gallstone unturned, getting into the nitty-gritty of lawmaking once again, getting into the important items like this one, replace the word fee with the word tax throughout the bill. congratulations, nevada. your senator's hard at work. opening up the bill as a word document, hitting control-f, clicking the replace button. forgetting the affair, nevada, this man is obviously indispensable. and finally, former h

ensign science mrmr. ensign: the crisis has turned my state into literally a ghost town. the grass of the housing market has been at the root of our economic crisis. we have to focus on fixing the housing problem in this country if we want many of the states that are still severely suffering to have their -- the economies turned around. in february i offered a bill called a fixed housing first bill. and this would have done just that. it would have turned the housing market into this -- in this country around. i believe it would have created jobs all across this country including my home state of nevada. my first -- my fixed housing first act would have let american homeowners refinance their mortgages at around a 4% interest rate in a 30-year fixed mortgage. this would have meant on average of around $300 to $400 savings per month for the average homeowner in the united states and back in my home state of nevada. additionally my bill included a provision produced by senator isakson from georgia that was a $15,000 home buyer tax credit to incentivize homeownership and cre

ensign: mr. president, i ask unanimous consent the call of the quorum be dispensed. .the presiding officer: without objection, so ordered. mr. ensign: mr. president, i rise today to talk about the bill that senator dorgan and i have sponsored, the travel promotion act of 2009. an important piece of legislation to create jobs in the united states. my home state of nevada is number two, now, in unemployment. clark county which is whe las vegas is located has one of the highest unemployment rates of any county in the united states, over 14% now. jobs is something we desperately need in my home state of nevada and, obviously, across the united states. tourism, when you pack knowledge it together is -- package it together is the number one industry in the united states. as a country we are one f the few in the world who don't sell ourselves to the rest of the world for people to come. it seems to make sense to me that if a comny advertises to bring people in, if convention authorities around this cour

again, of course, there's senator john ensign of nevada who offered an amendment of czars. we have to reel in the czars on health care, don't we? this is all part of the stall game in september. they are trying amendment this bill to death. their motives are completely transparent. listen to the republican senators repeat the same old talking points. this is today. >> artificial deadlines forced us to where we are today. it seems to me that some people in the senate would rather have it done right now instead of being done right. apparently in some circles there's a belief that passing a bill quickly is more important than getting it right. i regret that we ran out of time. >> unfortunately, due to outside pressures and arbitrary timelines faced by the chairman, we are now considering a bill that once again proposes more spending, more government, and more taxes. >> step back. take a deep breath. start over on a truly bipartisan bill. >> i've been in the senate for 35, 40 years. we've got to move slow. now, remember, max did say he worked 100 hours on this. folks, they just

ensign: first, mr.president, i thank the coauthor of this legislation, senator dorgan, for his leadership on recognizing how important this legislatn is to our country especially a this critical time when we need jobs. all of us just went back to our home stes and realized that there are a lot people who are truly hurting out there and it's not just people who have already lost their jobs but there's lot of people who are afraid they're going to lose their jobs. there's people who are afraid to invest in creating jobs. i would say that the number one emotion i heard during the august recess was that of fear. it is fear of what's going to haen in this country. senator dorgan, i think, eloquent put that this bill is really about jobs. and it's about creating jobs without adding to the federal debt. another thing i heard throughout the state of nevada, people are very concerned about federal spending and the deficits, this year, that we're facing in this looming federal debt that people really think is a t

chairman, i might say that senator and some -- senator ensign is next to be addressed, and it is 2:45. i do not know if it is possible, -- and it is 12:35, and it would be progress to get a vote on the rockefeller remanent before lunch. -- rockefeller amendment before lunch. following debate, we will then turn to the debate and vote on the schumer amendment. >> mr. chairman? >> yes? >> mr. chairman, i do not know if you announced this at the beginning of the meeting that you're going to do it, but on our side, we have some amendments that we want to offer, too, so when will we be able to offer those? >> a vote on the schumer amendment. >> did we agree ahead of time that there was going to be a schumer amendment and a rockefeller ramana? >> we did not agree ahead of time. -- rockefeller amendment. >> i certainly hope you keep to that, mr. chairman, because the two are symmetrical. >> we had some amendments. we can do two republican amendments after that if that is helpful. i see senator kyl with a grin on his face. does that work, senator? you are recognized. >> thank you, mr. chairman

meanwhile john "take me to fedex" ensign of nevada not extending coverage to mistress and staffers asking simply to strike the word "fee" everywhere it appears in the bill and replace it with the word "tax." that would certainly make it easier for him to argue against the measure in an effort to defeat it. you might think that the senator might want to pass the bill if his amendment calling for transparency and czars survives a snow ball chance in hell. it would prevent certain workers from the excise tax, the so-called cadillac plan tax or make changes to it paid for either by capping itemized deductions at 35% or closing corporate tax loop holes. many if not the majority of republicans not even bothering to provide offsets literally leaving those ways of paying for it blank when all they seem to do is talk about how much government costs. senators kerry and schumer would replace the free rider provision with an employer mandate that would provide all companies to provide health insurance. the free rider provision would penalize employers that do not offer insurance if their employees ob

-- the principles of the open internet are the best way to protect innovation in the networked by ensign of rising competition and power entrepreneurs and growing economic plan to the benefit of all. we want the internet to continue flourishing as a platform for innovation and communication, with continued investment and increasing deployment of broadband to all americans. i believe my fellow commissioners share this purpose and i look forward to working collaborative with them in this endeavor. in closing, we are here because 40 years ago a bunch of researchers in a loud change the way computers in iraq, and as a result, changed the world -- a bunch of researchers in a laboratory change the way computers interact, and as a result, it changed the world. our work now is to preserve the brilliance of what they contributed to our country and the world. in the 21st center, the brush, the basement, and the dorm room remained places -- in the 21st century, the garage, basement and the dorm room can remain we're joined by the policy director of free press, and regularly testifies before congres

scandal-plagued senator john ensign is back in the headlines.afi pitching a tent on donald trump's lawn. new that's sounds like the start of an offcolor joke but actually isn't. it has been an astonishing news day today and we will get to all of that this hour. >>> but where we begin tonight is with a mystery solved. why if you're a democratic member of congress you would want to fight tooth and nail against your own party on the biggest issue facing the country right now. there are as many different solutions to that mystery as there are conservative democrats in congress. but for the man who's become the poster child for democrats blocking their own party's efforts to reform health care, for the lead conservative blue dog democrat on health care, for the house's most vocal democratic opponent for a public health insurance option, a public option that's favored by a democratic president, majority of people in the country, by the majority of people in his home state, and according to new polling, by the overwhelming majority of democrats in his

. >> people are really afraid, says senator ensign. in fact, 65% of americans are so afraid of the public option that they said in the last "new york times"/cbs poll that they would please like a public option, 65%. you know, the least surprising news of the day today was that not a single republican would vote in accordance with that 65% of the american people. no a single republican would vote for the public option. but that doesn't really legislatively matter, right? after all, the committee has a democratic majority and surely democrats will vote for a public option, won't they? >> my job is to put together a bill that gets 60 votes. now, i can count. and no one has been able to show me how they can count up to 60 votes with a public option in the bill. >> democratic chairman max baucus says it's not that he doesn't want a public option. he does. he just won't vote for it unless everyone does. huh, leadership. in all on the first public option choice, senator rockefeller's amendment, there were five democrats who voted no. >> mr. c

it's done that nationally in the person of senator john ensign. senator ted stevens, senator larry craig, former new york attorney general eliot spitzer, former illinois governor robert blagojevich, and yes, in the current personage of south carolina governor mark sanford. now, the sanford matter brings to mind another south carolinian, congressman from the second congressional district, some of you have asked me going into today's presentation whether joe wilson's actions in the congress represent a scandal. i'll present to you today the idea that it does not. and leave open to our panelists and all of you questions and interaction that could further define that. in order to have a sense of where we're going, let me briefly state for you what wikipedia tells us a political scandal is. one in which a government official or politician is accused of various illegal, corrupt or unethical practices. it goes on but basically suggests pretty serious stuff. sometimes sex. sometimes money. abuse of power and often illegal acts. in contemplating this, thou

john ensign raised a question after receiving a hand written note from the chairman of the joint committee on taxation. it said the following. got that? no insurance, you could head to jail. nice system. martha: the white house is looking at some life and death decisions in afghanistan. u.s. and nato commanders have put in an urgent requests. general mcchrystal wants more troops. a request that has the administration split on the strategy for the war and the timing of the troops request. shannon, what do we know about how the administration is going to move forward? and when? >> of course it is very delicate. there is so much to consider here. the president has said that he would be a skeptical critic, he takes very seriously putting a single man or woman into harm's way. we know that there are several meetings ready to assess what general mcchrystal had to say. we understand that at least five different meetings are ready for tomorrow to discuss these things. interestingly he said that he realized that the pentagon has a very special bureaucracy that is hard to streamline. here is somethi

and you can see there's a pfect hand and glove fit that is responsible for the chemical braking the ensign accomplishes and this is typical oflmt all proteins. they perform their function because of this exquisite three-dimensional specificity, this hand and glove fit. the key question is how does that specifcity our ives and we know the specificity of shape and the protein derived from the specificity of sequence in any no acids which in turn derives from the specificity of sequence and arrangement, the information, the instructions, the digital code stored along e spine of the dna molecule so that is what i call the dna and make my and i will explain in a minute why i call that and make love. before we do that though it might be helpful to have visual representation of exactly what the instructions, the digital code in dna does within the molecule or within the cell. we now know that and is nice to have a look. i am going to in a second press the button and you will see an animation and it is first going to sw the digital code represente symbolically along the spine of the molecule then

caller: that like chuck grassley and john ensign. and/orin hatch. it's the same lies and the spin about the big government takeover and the -- it's like, you know what, they are living up there in their ivory towers with their never to worry about health care -- >> kathleen. thanks for the call. mesa, arizona. jim, republican calder, hi? i called you jim go ahead. caller: jan. i really like you. i like the way you let people talk. and you're fair. the lady that just talked, she couldn't give you any specifics. i have a son-in-law who has worked his tail off and paid for his own bills. he's a dentist. he owes a fortune to schooling. when they say this tort reform isn't a big deal, he pays big money. a dentist. he's just a general practitioner. the general dentistry that everybody wants is general dentistry. it is a big deal. they do need tort reform. when my son-in-law and daughter, she's a schoolteacher wee, in denver, 10 years ago, going to school, when they finished she was in pregnant. they were in kaiser. they come across straight line to arizon

my colleagues, senator ensign, senator klobuchar, senator reid and many, many others -- republicans and democrats -- have joined in the legislation that would create an opportunity for this country to compete internationally for international tourism travel. mr. president, we will, i think, for the next five hours or so -- or six hours -- stand atarade rest listening to people talk about what they want to talk about here on the floor of the senate, and it is a procedure that is a bit byzantine. most people wouldn't understand the procedure. h., on something as noncontrovsial as this. something widely supported by republicans and democrats. something that reduces the federal budget deficit and extend our ability to create jobs in this country. we got 80 senators to vote fo cloture which meant we had-to-file a cloture petition. it takes two days to have a cloture petition ripen. then we got cloture with 80 votes, now we stand at parade rest until somewhere around 4:30 this afternoon because 30 hours, if the minority insists, 30 hours has to expire. tend oat the e of the 30 hours, we have

it has done it nationally in the person of senator john ensign, senator ted stevens, senator larry craigmer new york attorney general eliot spitzer, former illinois gov. blago jevich, and the current south carolina gov. sanford. it brings to mind another south carolinian, congressman from the second congressional district. seven have asked me going into today's presentation whether or not joe wilson's actions in the congress represent a scandal. i will present to you today that the idea that it does not and leave open to our panelists and all of you questions and interactions that could further define that. in order to have a sense of where we were going, let me briefly state for you when we kapadia -- what wiki tells us is a scandal. they're accused of a corrupt or unethical practices. it's basically suggests a pretty serious stuff sprayed sometimes sex, money, abuse of power, and often illegal acts. in contemplating this, i looked at random house indicated that a disgraceful act, discrediting actions, some other form of misdeed could interpret could interpret a scandal. i believe each

ensign. >> aye. >> mr. chairman? >> no. >> chairman votes no. >> clerk will tally the vote. >> the final tally is 10 ayes and 30 nays. -- and 13 nays. >> amendment is not passed. next amendment is senator from massachusetts. >> i will just talk about this briefly. i want to raise this issue. i think bill flynn we can work on this between now and on the floor. i am confident because the position i am advocating is c15, 240. this amendment will be part of the melding of the two bills that is important for us to confront. that is the question of what is the appropriate age rating. my amendment is designed to put a 2-1 rating, which is what is in the health bill. we will have to confront the issue. allowing insurers to charge older americans a vastly higher premiums might be 6 to 1. if you allow them to charge older americans because they are older, i don't think that is a step in the true direction of health-related outcomes in help. it automatically treats everybody similarly andy can wind up in discrimination. -- and

the presiding officer: who yields time on the ensign amendment? mr. ensign: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from nevada. mr. ensign: mr. president, this is the committee report here. it says "2009 appropriations, $117 billion." this is the kind of fuzzy math that we deal with here in washington, d.c. last year's -- mr. president, can we have order. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. mr. ensign: last year's appropriations bill was $55 billion. it wasn't $117 billion. it's only $117 billion if you count in the money from the stimulus bill. that looks like it's being counted here so that they can claim they're actually cutting last year's bill. this bill has a 23% increase over last year. witwhat this motion to recommit says, let's show some fiscal restraint around here and let's freeze spending to last year's level. so we want to recommit the bill back to the appropriations committee. the appropriations committee can determine where they want the spending to go but it need to be at last year's level. mr. president, every state in our country