Ensign has two ways to fix the economy

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., was of two minds Tuesday when it came to the government's role in the economy.

Ensign was in Las Vegas for the dedication of the Clark County Shooting Park.

But he also talked about health care, the economy and other issues unrelated to his extramarital affair with an employee and subsequent payments to the mistress and her family.

Ensign criticized the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and other large initiatives endorsed by President Barack Obama for saddling the country with too much debt.

"What would help the economy right now would be fixing housing. It is what drug the economy down, that is what we need to fix," Ensign said.

He said his bill to hold down interest rates on home loans and offer a $15,000 tax incentive to buy a home would have saved the typical American homeowner $400 per month, money that would be spent elsewhere in the economy.

When asked whether the housing market, left to the laws of supply and demand, could sort itself out, Ensign said government intervention was justifiable.

"The government created this whole thing between Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the Community Reinvestment Act, all of that, that was the problem with housing in the first place. So I believe the government had a responsibility to fix it," Ensign said.

Later, Ensign was skeptical of the government's ability to intervene in the economy.

"It is critical for us to encourage the private sector to fix (the economy) instead of the government fixing it. Government spending didn't fix the Depression and it is not going to fix this now," he said.