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By Karoun Demirjian (contact) 
Friday, April 8, 2011 | 3:07 p.m.
John Ensign
The march of Republicans coming out against holding up a budget resolution over Planned Parenthood funding at the eleventh hour has been impressive, including Tea Party activists, rumored presidential candidates and some of the biggest spending hawks in Congress.
Add to their ranks one prominent Nevadan: Sen. John Ensign.
Ensign called on his fellow Republicans to swallow a reality check today, with the sort of abandon that can only be summoned by one who knows he can choose a course of action free from scrutiny two Novembers from now.
“Everybody in this body needs to forget about whether they get re-elected, and do what’s right for the country,” Ensign said. “It’s really important for both sides to get this behind us so we can focus on the much larger issues.”
It isn’t that Ensign’s in favor of keeping Planned Parenthood funded -- on the contrary, given a vacuum, he’d probably rather see the dollars go.
“I have an 100 percent pro-life voting record. I believe very strongly that life is precious,” he said. “But we have to face reality: Democrats are in control of the Senate, in control of the White House, and there’s no way that they’re going to allow Planned Parenthood -- which is the largest abortion provider in the United States, I disagree with what they do -- but the Democrats will never allow us to defund Planned Parenthood while they’re in charge.
“We have to look at what we can do, what is achievable,” he said.
For Ensign, like many other Republicans, the fact that these riders have hamstrung the federal budget debate is drawing attention away from the real problem: skyrocketing debt.
“We’re in a debate over a few billion dollars compared to trillions of dollars; it’s really a drop in the bucket,” Ensign said.
Rep. Joe Heck agreed.
“I believe in and support the bill as it came out of the appropriations committee, the original H.R. 1 before the riders went on. I would hope that any discussions taking place at echelons above me are concentrating on keeping government open and cutting spending."
I can tell you from experience that it's rough being a Republican when you're a fiscal conservative but a social moderate. I had to switch parties, not that the free-spending Dems were all that glad to have me, either.
We need to eliminate the use of "Riders" to bills, period. Bills need to stand on their own and contain ONLY provisions related to that particular bill or else we will see this happen perpetually!
The first sensible thing uttered by this man in ages.
He should still resign today, but it shows anyone can be right once in a while.
Good job, Ensign. You got this one right.
We will demand defunding of wasteful programs, including Planned Parenthood, PBS, Nat'l. Endowment for the Arts, Dept. of Education, EPA and others later-on.
The GOP did the right thing by accepting fewer budget cuts than they wanted in order to keep our military funded. It is a despicable new low the Democrats have descended-to by using our military personnel as political pawns.
Eliminating just one single bloated, unnecessary, wasteful, and corrupt Department of Defense weapons program would do a lot to help the budget. But calls to eliminate the Public Broadcasting System, Planned Parenthood, and the Environmental Protection Agency are not about saving taxpayer dollars. They are about the *extreme* right-wing agenda of the Tea Party and religious extremists (like the disgraced and phony John Ensign) that dominate today's Republican Party. These right-wing nut cases remind of me of the Khymer Rouge revolutionary communists who, upon seizing power, attempted to move Cambodia back into feudal times by silencing intellectuals, the urban population , and anyone else who disagreed with them. Tea Party intolerance toward and hatred of compromise with the ideas of others are dangerous and un-American.