MARK WAITE / PVT U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., talks with Wal-Mart employees at the wall of heroes at the entrance to the store Monday. Advertisement

A politically uneducated girl on the Pahrump Valley High School Senior Council asked U.S. Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., what party he belonged to.

Ensign said when he was a youth he was a Democrat. He switched to being a Republican based on former President Ronald Reagan's advice, to "look for people you agree with 80 percent of the time."

"As I got older, and I'm a veterinarian by profession, and I own my own business, I realized the policies Democrats support actually hurt a lot of people they were trying to help," Ensign said in a brief civics lesson to the council in the high school auditorium Monday.

Ensign cited the welfare system, which he said creates a dependency cycle; 60 percent of the people who used to be on welfare are off it thanks to the welfare reform bill.

Students will have decades before they have to worry about retirement, but Ensign advised them to think about their future. "When Social Security first started there were 40 workers for every one retiree, 40. Today there are four. The system doesn't work on those kind of numbers," Ensign said.

He told the students, "If young people aren't involved in the political process to cast votes, to find out what candidates are about, it's very easy to scare senior citizens. People will say, for instance, we need to change Social Security. That scares people."

The No Child Left Behind Act, raised by a couple students, was a subject closer to home.

"It was put in for the right intentions, and that is to bring some accountability into the schools. It is moving our schools in the right direction. We are improving our schools because of it. But it has some serious flaws that need to be fixed," Ensign said.

The act can create problems in a fast-growing state like Nevada, he said. Educators in the state are being consulted for their opinions, he said, as the act is up for reauthorization next year.

Nevada has to be compared not with neighboring states, but with other countries, Ensign said. "You have to have a national focus, but most of the control at the local level," Ensign said of the act. He said claims it's an unfunded federal mandate are false. "It says right in the law, you don't have to comply with it if there's not enough funding."

Asked to elaborate on the flaws, Ensign said one student can affect the ranking of a whole class. He added that, in transitory communities like Pahrump, a group of students can improve over the year, but then another group will come in, making it look as if there's no progress.

One students asked about the problem with North Korea, which recently tested a nuclear weapon. Ensign said North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is a madman and North Korea is a thoroughly dangerous regime. "When they sell nuclear technology to Iran, you've got big problems," Ensign said. "We live in an incredibly dangerous world today. It's one thing to fly an airplane into a building and kill a lot of people, but it's nothing compared to what a weapon of mass destruction can do."

Ensign told another student the approval of ballot Question 7, legalizing the sale of small quantities of marijuana would be a "tremendous mistake." Marijuana leads to other drugs, he said, while its legalization would negate the positive effects of drug court programs. But he added, "I don't believe people that use marijuana should be in jail."

During an interview after the high school speech, Ensign lashed out against his opponent, Democrat Jack Carter, who has campaigned hard in Nye County and blasted Ensign for voting with President Bush 97 percent of the time.

"It's completely false. This is only scoring one out of five votes. We already told him that over half of those votes are unanimous or near unanimous votes. Harry Reid even voted with him (Bush) 60 percent of the time," Ensign said. "I have a reputation with working with Senator Reid in a bipartisan fashion for the state."

While he visited Desert View Regional Medical Center, Ensign talked about getting federal funds in the future to ensure the new hospital doesn't shut down. Ensign presented a check for a $17.5 million U.S. Department of Agriculture loan for construction of the facility in June 2005.

Asked about Pahrump's infrastructure needs, like highway funding. Ensign was blunt: "Highway 160 going into Las Vegas is a disaster."

Ensign said he voted against the Medicare part D prescription drug program.

"This bill was too big, too expensive and too bureaucratic," he said. "My bill was better for lower-income seniors, the ones who truly needed the help. I don't believe that wealthy seniors should get the help from taxpayers on a benefit they didn't pay for."

Ensign bristled at the suggestion he hasn't spent enough time in Pahrump during the campaign. Ensign said he's visited Pahrump frequently during his six-year term, where his family has run the Pahrump Nugget Casino, at least until today. He said Carter is a newcomer to the state who claims he knows about Nevada issues.

"You have a lot more time when you're not working. I have responsibilities in Washington. I've tried to get around to every part of the state during the campaign," Ensign said.

Immigration is a huge issue, the senator said.

"Securing the borders is very important, and the fence is part of it. The reason you need the fence is for the urban areas," he said. Ensign said a border fence would prevent the operation of safe houses in border cities that are making money harboring illegal aliens.

When asked about money from the Southern Nevada Public Lands Management Act he co-authored with former U.S. Sen. Richard Bryan, D-Nev., in Nye County, Ensign said the federal government is planning to reduce the fuel levels in the Spring Mountains to reduce the danger of wild fires. The act uses proceeds from the sale of public lands for various environmental programs, while 10 percent of the fund goes to education, though Ensign said that money is committed to the state general fund.