Fewer punches thrown in second Reid-Ensign debate

Round two of Sen. Harry Reid versus Rep. John Ensign brought out much the same partisanship as the opening round, but with far fewer stinging uppercuts.

When the combatants for Reid's Nevada Senate post squared off for an hour Sunday night, the atmosphere was far different than a week ago.

Their first debate was before a live and vocal crowd in the Sun City retirement community. This time, they were in the KLVX-TV Channel 10 studios, with hundreds of loud and partisan supporters kept outside.

Again, it was Democrat Reid who set the tone for the debate, but this time he chose in his opening remarks to dwell on his Searchlight roots rather than attack Republican Ensign as he had done in Sun City. Ensign's opening was virtually identical, including the fact he first ran for Congress in 1994 because he was tired of politicians who cared more about getting re-elected.

Because both men have run endless television advertisements trumpeting their own positions and berating one another, little new information came out of this debate. In fact, it was as if the TV ads had come to life, with the candidates defending their own votes in Congress and challenging each other's record.

Limited by the debate format, their proposed solutions to pressing domestic issues remained sound bites, even when questions from a media panel begged for detailed responses. For instance, both men said they wanted to reform health maintenance organizations but didn't stray too far from generalizations.

"We need to pass a patients' bill of rights," Reid said. "Doctors are not being treated fairly, and patients are not being treated fairly. What was done in the (GOP-controlled) House was cosmetic in nature."

Ensign said the problem with the Democratic version favored by Reid is that it would allow for too many lawsuits against health-care providers, thereby giving lawyers more control.

"HMO's had a role," Ensign said. "They lowered costs. But now we have to make sure people have access to the health care they need."

As for what to do with projected federal budget surpluses, Reid said his priority would be to save Social Security but doubted that Congress would reach a decision on this issue until next year. However, Reid termed "reasonable" a House GOP bill supported by Ensign that would direct 90 percent of surpluses to Social Security and 10 percent to tax cuts.

Ensign also repeated his call to separate the Social Security trust fund from the rest of the federal budget, arguing that it should not be counted toward deficit reduction.

Reid, however, jumped on Ensign for having once told a newspaper that Social Security was "a terrible idea." This controversial quote has generated TV ads from both sides.

"If you read the full quote, he goes on to say other bad things about Social Security," Reid said.

Ensign said he didn't imply that Social Security ought to be eliminated.

"Social Security, when it was set up, could have been a much better system," he said. "People thought it was a trust fund. It's a phony trust fund where phony IOUs have been put in."

As for avoiding a domestic recession in the face of global economic turmoil, Reid applauded a recent decision by the Federal Reserve Board to lower interest rates.

"The best thing we can do is continue the path we're on," Reid said.

Ensign blamed the International Monetary Fund in part for the worldwide turmoil, noting that it has been bailing out "bad investments by rich investors." He said several foreign nations need to adopt market discipline.

"In the United States we must make sure we don't go to deficit spending," Ensign said.

One of the few new subjects that was broached dealt with their approaches to Nevada's growing Hispanic population. Reid, who boasted of having the only Hispanic chief of staff in the Senate, cautioned that schools should not rush to eliminate English as a Second Language programs.

Ensign, however, complained that many students go through 12 grades of public school using primarily their native language. He said these students should be required to learn English in order to make it in society.

Both candidates traded barbs for their roles in legislation having to do with land swaps in Nevada and elimination of the source tax to prohibit states from taxing the pensions of former residents. Ensign took credit for his House sponsorship of a bill that calls for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management to dispose of up to 20,000 acres of land in Southern Nevada. Proceeds are to be used for education and to purchase other environmentally-sensitive acreage.

Ensign repeated his charge that Reid helped get this bill killed in 1996 to serve his own political self-interest, an accusation the senator denied. Reid shot back that he has supported similar land bills going back to the time of former Rep. James Bilbray, the Las Vegas Democrat Ensign unseated in 1994. Reid, in fact, was a co-sponsor of the land swap bill that passed the Senate last week.

Reid, in turn, accused Ensign of falsely taking credit for ending the source tax. Reid said he began sponsoring repeal of the source tax before Ensign was even in Congress. But Ensign said the tax wasn't repealed until Republicans such as himself took control of Congress.

Ensign also repeated his observation that only 40 cents of every dollar Nevada taxpayers spends on education stays within this state. He said he supports a House bill that would earmark 95 percent of all federal education funds for the classroom.

"Let's get Washington, D.C., and all the strings attached out of education," Ensign said.

The senator said Ensign was wrong about his statistics, arguing instead that 95 percent of all Nevada money for education remains within the state. And of the 5 percent that goes to the federal government, 95 percent of that goes back to classroom education, Reid said.

"Saying that 60 cents (of every dollar) goes to Washington simply is not true," Reid said. "He doesn't give account of what goes to vocational education and teacher training."

Ensign, who has campaigned to shrink the federal government, said programs he would support include defense, drug courts, and student loans. Reid, conversely asked what he would eliminate, spoke of his success in getting rid of wool and mohair subsidies. He also said the Federal Reserve Board must be held more accountable.

Reid noted that all but two of the 55 current Republican senators have voted to transport high-level nuclear waste to Nevada, an issue he said makes Ensign look bad. But Ensign stuck by his own anti-nuclear waste position, even though Reid accused the congressman of voting for an unsuccessful GOP budget bill in 1995 that included a temporary dump for Nevada.

Ensign, however, noted that the 1987 bill that established Yucca Mountain 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas as the sole site to study for a nuclear repository was passed when Democrats controlled Congress.

Ensign also made note that Reid voted against cost of living increases for military personnel while voting himself a $12,000 pay raise. Reid said that after voting against pay raises on several occasions, he conceded he supported a procedural resolution that included the $12,000 raise. But he said the resolution also was supported by Senate Republicans, including former Senate Majority Leader Bob Dole of Kansas. Reid also defended his record of helping military servicemen.

Sunday's debate was carried live on Channel 10 and was re-broadcast this morning to a nationwide audience via C-SPAN 2. The two candidates are scheduled to debate again on Oct. 15 in Reno.

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