We want to keep using our military do go into the other countries, take a bill with us figure out what its going to cost and tell them that you pay half when we get there and half when the jobs done. We cant keep affording to go and police the world and some of the social programs like Social Security so easy to fix. When the kid comes out of the Social Security on year one, start taking taxes out. Dont wait 18 or 20 years. Take a little bit out of earned Income Credit and not miss it. It would fix Social Security and probably give a little bit of money there for health care that the whole country needs. Okay. Caller i think those are a couple of good things to start with. All right. John fortier the budget. We with respect taking positions like wars and entitlement. Those are functions for congress to address. I think if youre getting at the budget process, thats something we made recommendations about and the Bipartisan Policy Center has additional recommendations out of an economic commission. It really is not what it should be. One thing we recommend is really to move to a twoyear budget cycle and may seem like inside baseball and we spend a lot of time each year arguing trying to get through many appropriations bills, trying to get a budget passed and then start all over again next year and contentious and the deadlines are and with a twoyear cycle, more longterm planning and the ability to have oversight, more in the middle of this time so you werent always thinking about a oneyear plan. You could have two years and watch where the money was going over the two years. Not measured by the index and something we hope to see. John is next in pennsylvania, republican. Good morning. Caller yes. Good morning. Id like to just make a comment on my observation. I pay pretty close attention to what goes on in congress. And a couple years ago the postmaster general came there. The postoffice was losing a lot of money and congress regulates the post office but they dont fund it. So they called the postmaster general in and he suggests made some recommendations so the senate almost immediately got on this. The committee was susan collins, a republican and Joe Lieberman an independent. And they i watched that whole process through the committee and i thought, boy, this is just how my government is supposed to work. It seemed perfect. They had all kinds of amendments in the committees. Then it went to the house or to the full floor and they voted on it on all these amendments. I think close to a hundred. They passed it by i believe it was over 80 of the senate voted for this. And i thought, this is just working perfect. And it went to the house and that was the last you heard of it. Okay. Okay, john . Well, i think you point out a couple of things. One, there can be important relationships 0 of a Committee Chairman or chairwoman and the Ranking Member. Those are really essential members of committees that work very well. Have the good relationships and much of what a committees jurisdiction is is to oversee an area of government, to watch what the federal executive branch is doing or even outside agencies like the post office. So if you see a committee working well with both sides, leaders of both sides of the committee willing to do oversight, sure disagree on certain parts of legislation and what they want to do about it, but to spend the serious time overseeing you see a good result. Whether that always works in both houses you know again we believe that at the end of the day both houses have to take these things serely and that those differences are real and sometimes we might go to Conference Committee to resolve them. Those are thats part of the process and i do think you do see many me believes Joe Lieberman is not with us in congress anymore but good relationships between chairman and Ranking Members are extremely important for the functioning of this viewer on twitter said representatives and senators should have some qualification for the committee on which they serve. Too many ignorant of subjects they address. Don in pennsylvania, independent, what do you think . Caller good morning. I think what we need to do is look at the whole situation of gerrymandering in the country. The house has gerrymandered their seats. Here in erie they split a competitive district in half. They gave mike kelly the rep of western pennsylvania the whole western part of erie. They snaked it down towards pittsburgh and eastern half of the state to Republican Rep of state college, snakes way over the mountains to state college. And these districts have now become same thing in ohio. No republican has to worry about their district. Or democrat has to worry about their district. So theres no cooperation between the two. So how are you going to get things done . We have to eliminate the gerrymandering. Thats how i would do it to try to get competitive districts back so our government can work. Got it. Well, were here talking a little bit about congress but if you look back to the entire report of our commission on political reform we did take on several issues. One was Congress Electoral system and services and in our section on the electoral system, we did talk about redistricting and we had to get agreement of republicans and democrats on the commission and did feel some things to be done better in that regard. First, let me tell you, as a political scientists, i think these are important questions but Political Science tells you youre still not going to have districts competitive or everyone in the middle. Part of whats gone on in america is congress is left and right and people live together and concentrated, democrats live in democratic neighborhoods. Republicans live so the drawing of the lines wont fix all of that. We came up with a process that we thought was fair and several recommendations. One is that both party vs an investment in redistricting. Too often it is one party power and sticks it to the other party. And then secondly i know you mentioned geographic concerns. We try to putt some other limitations on the map drawing process by requiring districts to be drawn more according to county lines or natural geographic features rather than just these crazy districts that squiggle around. Thats not you know not easy to do but one thing it does is makes it possible impossible for people to be too key yative. Some of the districts are very, very creative and having little bit more limitation on the process, open process about how to redistrict we are for. We werent willing to go as some people say to go to california or arizona which have models which are more completely out of the political process. They have turned it over to citizens. They dont want the legislature or the parties involved. Our commission really believed that having both parties have a say in those maps made sense but we did agree with you in many ways redistricting the lines are part of the solution. Talking with john fortier the democracy project director for the bipart son policy center. The group put together recommendations to improve congress. Theyre now out with an index of how this 114th congress has done in the first six months. So were now turning to all of you to have you take part in the conversation, as well. What do you think . How do you improve congress . Pennsylvania, sharon is next, a republican. Caller hello and thank you, cspan, for taking my call. I think we could limit the terms that they run for. Like, two terms and that is it. I think most of these congressmen have been in office for 15 years 25 years. I mean they get too comfortable with the lobby. And to be honest, im really disgusted with congress. I dont think theyve done anything, anything in the eight years that this president has been in office. Its a continual fight. And its really frustrating to watch them every day. They absolutely do nothing. And i feel sorry for obama. Okay. Lets i mean, part of this point that you do in this index is for people to be able to have metrics to measure congress. She said theyve done nothing. How many bills have they passed . We dont actually measure that. Were too early to say. Theres a number out there. I dont know it. Were measuring more the proeszcess of getting through committee. There have been successes. Major deals on trade. A framework for debating iran even though the parties will disagree on that. We have seen changes in education. Elementary and secondary education act passing surprising people. We have seen a little bit more hope in this congress. If i turn to the question about term limits which the caller brought up, you know, i think here our commission debated this and we didnt we didnt share your concern for term limits. We were worry edied somewhat in the other direction. The court said you have to amend the constitution to limit the terms of members. That is hard to do. We have seen it in some state legislatures and one worry is you take away the expertise of members that they build up over a long period of time. Some would say, boy the system is corrupt and lobbyists are too in bed with members of the congress or legislature and what the research has shown is opposite. If you have members of Congress Brand new and dont know as much and experienced theyre much more subject to the influences of a few lobbying or a few interest who have their ear. We did not we didnt come down against it strongly but we certainly were not for term limits on the commission. We think having experience in the legislature is valuable in terms of getting things done. Citizen on twitter says this, congress always lags behind publics common sense awareness. Congressional outrage emerges suddenly after an event. Where were they . Stan in baltimore, democrat, you are next, good morning. Caller the previous caller has my complete opinion and i still believe that term limits would make a difference. Yes, it could be a small issue with inexperience, but everybody going to be inexperienced. And youve got people going in the congress and in the senate who have been there for 25 30 or more years. Thats ridiculous. I do not believe that the Founding Fathers that i hear these people talk about all the time wanted these people to make a career out of being a senator or congressman. There is no way that anybody could prove that to me. All right. Thats stan in baltimore. Eric is next, democrat in virginia. Hi. Caller hi. Term limits are a horrible idea. It is like telling a doctor to retire after 20 years of learning the trade. And people just dont understand how complex the legislative process is but you definitely need the expertise. Second, i think the most fundamental problem that i have observed in congress is particularly in the house. Its structured in such a way that you cant build consensus. So much power is vested in the majority that the minority has no incentive to cut deals or to reach compromise or consensus. Their objective has to be to get in power again because they have virtually no control. We have seen the senate headed in that direction, also, and skrult we have seen reduced. So i think its a structural problem with respect to how congress is arranged. John fortier. I think your analysis is good in a way and goes back to the very beginnings of our country and how we conceived of the igs tuitions. The house always thought of much mf of a majority institution. Elected every two years on short terms. React to public opinion. Could really change in one election. The senate has to change over several elections smaller body, often requires more consensus. Part of the frarmmers genius is two bodies, being in the moibt in the house is not a great experience because you are really subject much more to the whims of the majority who are able to pass things over your objection. But we do call for the committee process, a more open debate process on the floor the Conference Committees, thats all a place where the majority and minority could have more input. Within that framework, i dont think you ever see the house be quite the place that has the ability to debate or the role of the minority that the senate does but we think it could be improved in a legislative process of some minority input and we think we have seen some directions in that process. Thats a place where minority members can make their views heard. Lailany democrat. Good morning to you. Caller hi, good morning. Basically congress is just become a cash cow for people who lie to us around election time or whether its every two or six years. With the United States senate races or quite frankly whether its every four years for the presidency. I just dont understand how the American People can put up with this. This is just absolutely its just horrible. Horrible to fit in be subjected to the amount of gridlock that we the people dont belong dealing with. I mean its just horrible. And i i dont think theres any solution. I mean the constitutional amendment process is almost impossible. Its just people have given up really. They have given up. All right. Well take those sentiments. Congress is very unpopular. Your views is not uncommon. We have seen Approval Ratings as low as 9 or so. It is up a little bit from that now. I think congress suffers from the way its built, that it is not one voice. The president you may like the president s policies or not like the president s policies but the president speaks with one voice. The congress with many. It is difficult. The framers made it difficult to get minorities, different elections and two bodies and then the president s cignasignature to get something done. Thats not as easy as some countries with more of a single parliament where the executive is part of that. So i think thats part of the frustration. Given that, though i think that there are ways to work within that. Again, what we are calling for here is some process where all of those voices are better heard. Getting the voices of 100 senators and 435 representatives from 2 different parties that disagree on a lot of things to come to a common agreement is a hard thing. But some common sense measures how the process could work better would make the process better. I dont expect congress to jump way up in Approval Ratings but i do see some hope now and i see the process will allow the legislative process to go forward and never always be considered messier than the executive branch. Question for all of you, how would you improve congress . Doug in new york, what are your thoughts . Caller my thoughts would be to amend the constitution and have president obama serve a third term. And as far as this commission or this gentleman, im wondering about him having senator lott as a part of that commission when he is quite a divisive person. And was he convicted of some political shenanigans . Im not clear on that one. But i do wish that the constitution would be amended so that the president could serve a third term. Its the only chance we have as a nation. Okay. Im not sure what you were referring to coming the former senator trent lott. We did have members of both parties. We thought it was commission that this be broadly representative and your viewers may find some of the members were more conservative than they were or liberal than they were but that was the point really. We didnt want a commission of people that just agreed with each other but across the spectrum spectrum. The point of term limits for the president , we didnt take it up but i think its a good one. We put in a amendment to the constitution after Franklin Roosevelt won four terms thinking that was too much. Soopz you start a second term everyone knows that you cant run for a third term. And some of your power as president , power of persuasive, the power to come back and win another election is gone. So i our commission didnt take that on. I personally agree with you. I think its better to run for a third term or maybe even a fourth term and let the people decide. I think you would find very few people going that far. Running for three terms. We had for many years a tradition started by washington and jefferson that they would serve a couple of terms but they wouldnt go longer than that. I think that was a better situation than we are today where theres the tradition and there was no fixed rule to run again. The president really can amass more persuasive power if he may run again, may have to go to the people and congress will who also goes to the people has to deal with the president in a different way. Dry creek, west virginia, john, a republican, you are next, john. Caller yes. Thank you for taking my call. I think as a former schoolteacher, as a retired schoolteacher, we have taught our kids that compromise was the best way to get something mutually agreed upon. But we have a president now that demands everything his way and still instead of compromising. All right john. Ill leave it there. Well again the system that we have of a separation of powers is frustrating if for one of the players you feel is not willing to go along. And so for those who dont like what congress is doing or those who dont like the president its a messy, messy process. I do think that again forcing the players to have a more open debate that is in Congress Getting more input from across the aisle getting something before it gets to the president s desk will give it a greater chance of getting it done. May bring the president to the table, this president or another president. It is not the end all, be all answer, process. Theres still the strong feelings and strongly held convictions of the players in the various positions. But we do think that the president does play an Important Role here and for the president to come, we mentioned earlier on certain days to meet with congress, to spend more time in the legislative process and for the congress to have a more robust process would mitigate that problem a bit. New york, kyle, independent what are your thoughts . Caller yeah, hi. I think we have heard a lot of the same thoughts and frustrations and i think the people are concentrating on the actual election instead of the legislative process. I think thats right. I think one way we could take away the incumbents damage is to make it illegal to directly solicit campaign contributions. We could call it the grahamtrump bill. What do you think of that . Well you know, our commission did take up this issue of money and politics or Campaign Finance