He is a freshman senator and he waited a full year before he gave his first speech. And his first speech in the senate was a critique of the institution and a critique of how congress operates. Here is a little. If i can be brutally honest for a moment, i am here every weekend and what i hear is the same thing you hear every weekend, which is some version of this. A pox on both your parties and all of your houses. We dont believe that politicians are even trying to solve the great problems that we face. The generational problems. Those of uslicans, who would claim that the new maturity is leading the way, see if people believe it. To thent sanders grand standards, few believe needs are as important to you as your own ambitions. To the democrats, few believe bareknuckle politics are a substitute for principles governing. And to the thousands on the , salivatinge left for these tactics. Why is that . Because we are not doing our job. We are not doing the primary here that people send us to do. We are not tackling the Great National problems that worry our families at home. Host heres a story about his maiden speech. It is putting the senate on notice, like an obedient child in victorian times. Things he has seen but not heard over the past 10 years. He started staking out the legislative identities. He waited a full year to come to the floor for his customary maiden speech. To a long since eroded tradition for new senators and preferring instead to be known for his quirky tweets on history, politics and cornhusker football. Host this article goes on to say that the premise of his argument is that the senate is unable to come to terms with what he identifies as the nations most pressing issues. Host here is a little bit more. In just a second we will show you more from the speech, but we want to use this maiden talk on the senate floor as the jump off point to talk about your ideas to fix congress. You can see the numbers on the screen. If you are a democrat, you can dial in at 202 7488000, republicans, 202 7488001. If your independent, 202 7488002. You can make a comment on facebook. Com\cspan and you can send an email. Here is a little bit more from him. Why does the senates character matter . Precisely because the senates bill to insulate us from shorttermism. That is the point of the senate. A place to avoid the bickering of 24 hour news sites. The senate is a place to focus on the biggest stuff. The senate was built to be the antidote to soundbites. Ive asked many of you what you think is wrong with the senate, with us. As with most struggling organizations, it is surprising how much agreement there is. There is so much common agreement about what is wrong the incessant fundraising, the ubiquity of cameras, everywhere that we talk. The mobilization of using senate fundraising,cises, the constant traveling, meaning that many families get ripped up. That is one of the things you hear about host. This is not to suggest that there is unit among you in these private conversations. Either versions is perhaps most pronounced in the question of what comes next. Whether permanent institutional decline is available is inevitable. I think the majority view, from my conversations, are pessimistic. Host what are your ideas . Democrats,000 is 202 7488001 is republicans, 202 7488002 for independence. Andre taking the speech using that as a jumpoff point for your ideas to fix congress. , posts that one of the biggest lost opportunities to fix congress is low voter turnout in primary elections. In hundreds of elections, the congressperson is chosen in the primary election with about 10 voter turnout. Most voters dont realize that by october, they are congressperson has already been selected. Skip says vote. And kirk says strip almighty washington of the political power they usurped from the people over the past century and return it to them. Into theshington sleepy backwater of the potomac it was meant to be. Brian post that the real problem is pete is people have are been in senate and congress for decades. These people are the real problem. We need term limits. Donald says burn it down and start over with real leaders, not businessmen looking to gain more wealth at americans expense. Line, what are your ideas . I havent called for quite a while while. I like to call when you are there. I am for young people. Can you hear me . Host we are listening, shirley. Caller this is going to be their future. I am for term limits. They have all of these perks, and most of them, that is what they go for. They want to make a career out of it. Of thet like the speaker house from ohio, i was glad when they sent him home. I vote one way or the other. I used to be a democrat, but i got away from thats when they turned into a socialist club. You cant give everybody everything and these young people know that. Are you calling for term limits . Caller yes. Yes i am. , iause i am 83 years old always call you just before my birthday. [laughter] and it is the young people i am worried about. The grandchildren and my greatgrandchildren. I have raised four children who were all in the military service , they dont treat the military right. And the one we have now i have to tell you, it is and in 2009 after the inauguration, i saw these clips in the newspaper in the back, and it said that it made bob gates mad. He said that he asked all the military for personal loyalty oaths written by each member of the service. You think i can find that clipping . I keep looking for it. But i havent found it. Our young people go over there and they die. That is another thing that makes me angry. All the stations want to tell themany i like oldfashioned. My husband was in world war ii and a lost a brotherinlaw in germany. They said loose lips sink ships. That is why we dont win nothing. Host all right. Ohio, happyely in birthday and thank you for calling in, it is nice to hear from you. Coming in next is bill, from massachusetts. How do you fix congress . Caller good morning and happy birthday shirley. Peter, that young lady is so right. Term limits are the only answer. There are folks out there saying that people will never put themselves out of a job. The way to go is, we need referendums. States, state the referendums,o have a vote on whether or not they can have term limits. We can open up the constitution and have a nationwide vote. Maybe even cspan could have a part in this. Up variouspened it shows for all 50 states, maybe three states at a time and have people from the state on the morning show talking about term would whether people vote for or against it. This is way we can do to open up the constitution and insert term limits. This was not supposed to be a lifetime job. We have too many people who were sold to too many companies. Are itorations who is of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations. Host thank you for calling in. Tweets in, remove the cameras. That will six congress more than any other change. Robert, a democrat . Caller yes, i am eight caller from massachusetts. Said that all politics are local. All you have to do is look at the local city town officials that theyll find out read district, they change things from place to place. These pharmacists if you go to Dunkin Donuts, it is one of the Biggest Companies in new england. If you go into young and donuts, you will never see a black person or american working in a Dunkin Donuts in massachusetts. Why we feel very sad when we see these people coming in this country. My kid cant get a job at Dunkin Donuts or mcdonalds. And i seeo home depot all of these people coming. Host tie that into fixing congress. How are you going to fix congress if you can fix your local city officials . They want to start local get a state job and then move the and then move up to be the president. They work their way up the ladder for one reason and that a salary. That was robert in massachusetts. Onterday there was a form bipartisanship. Leahys senator pat talking about that issue. Not enough leaders to work things out. That you arean always going to agree with the leader of your own party, but there are certain things that may seem formal with you can work it out. You can do a lot of things by consent. People have one or two who can disrupt that and get on the local news by doing it. We dont spend enough time developing personal relationships. When i came, we were in session five days a week. People werent out fundraising all the time. Your children would know each other and your children would know each other and that made a big difference. Everything everyone thinks that it is done on the floor but i the private meetings have a nice office in the capital and we have had meetings there. We just sit down and talk. Without having every single word recorded. You have to go back to those personal relationships. Politico this morning, speaker ryan says he is he says that the house will be so freewheeling under his direction that leaders might ring bills to the floor that will fail. Bills will come up that may not pass. We are not going to bottle up the process. Host don is in greenville, ohio on the independent line. What did you think of the speech . All, i think we havent had a great president or congress for 50 years. And that is a true shame. In that case, i think we need a third party, called we the people of the United States. Think wethat, then i can have term limits and Campaign Finance reform. Term limits and finance Campaign Reform is the only way we going to change this. The last time we voted for president , i think there was probably my different parties running. If we all get together and call the people of the United States, i think we could get this changed. A lot of people dont believe in that but i seriously think that this is the only way were going to get this changed. Host are you a tea party person . Caller not really. I dont really believe in what they are trying to prove that i think we do need a thirdparty now, more than ever. Because these people up there, they want to sit there and become multimillionaires, practically overnight. We have people out there who are facing tax evasion and insider trading. And Everything Else going on up there and they really arent paying any attention to what the people of the United States. Host we will leave it there. Clinton,to pray in pennsylvania. Go ahead. Caller good morning. First off, the way to change the senate is to go back to the simple majority, 51 votes. A 5050 side. We go back to the filibuster rule that you must stand there and talk. We need to shut it down somehow and there is nothing being done. People look at the whole congress and not looking their job. Right now it is the democrats doing what the republicans were doing. This is asked to stop. The republic that we are under, it doesnt work. This government is going down because of the simple process out there. People dont vote. I blame the people mainly. Do their job,ont at least on the republican side republicans being thrown out in the primaries and new ones coming in, they are trying to make changes. But people in the media, they want instant change. It isnt going to happen instantly. It takes decades to do this. When came in, he worked. You dont have that anymore. You have a simple solution is on one side, the democrats and you have the republicans who are controlled by the big money. In the primaries, that is where the real power is. You have to throw the old guys out of office in the primaries. That is happening. It will be fine if the process wasnt in. By the stupid rules of you have to have 60 votes. Who said . Say,hese bills appear and go ahead. Show us what you are male what youre made of. There is something wrong somewhere. If you want to participate, and our phone lines are jammed, you can also thereipate on facebook, is a lot of lively conversation going on there. You can also participate through twitter. Here are some tweaks that we are getting. A lot of different ideas. Jodi says that 140 characters cannot contain the amount of things that need to be instituted to make congress fly correctly. Take out the money. Jack says that Congress People cannot sleep in their offices. They need to spend defined duration in washington, d. C. Have terms robert, we limits, it is called the ballot box. Vote them out. To one more, the answer is ban all Political Parties and limit all caps aims to max six months, and of story. Fromt is calling in brooklyn, a democrat. I think the institution has to be changed structurally. That would mean rewriting the first articles of the constitution. To recompromise what needs to be scrapped because the house has become nothing but a monument to gerrymandering. I think it ought to be done away with. Things,eamlining because it goes a lot faster now and when the founders shaped the government. To improve things, we would have to have three senators from each state, instead of two. This way, everyone would understand that during each election cycle, everyone in the country would be voting for senator. Days, you are not voting for senator. Have a single house legislature, we would have to redraw some state lines. Because people deserve representation, real estate does not. Is absurd that wyoming gets as much reclamation representation in the senate. That was robert with some of his ideas on fixing congress. We are basing this discussion on the senators inaugural address in the senate. He is a republican from nebraska and he spoke this week in the first speech, he waited one year to do this. There is an npr story about his speech. Sees the senate as a midcareer challenge. Even in the senate where the average age has been dropping noticeably, his fresh face conveys youthfulness. Andlong with Paul Ryan Marco Rubio and ted cruz, they are part of a new generation suddenly taking over in the grand old party. Say in thiso article that he had an unusual path to the senate. He got a harvard undergraduate degree, also from st. Johns college and from yield college. From yale. He taught history and served as president to midland university, a small Lutheran College in alaska. The next call comes from mark in oregon. Get commerce out of congress. Corporatet have the influence upon the politicians, then you wont get those bills that they have been benefiting from, mostly corporations. Of wont have the debacle 2008 to the regulators would have been more and they would have been funded more. I congress. Ishink a lot of our problem money. I dont think the structure of congress or the legislative legislative branch is all that bad, but lately it has not been giving people a chance because congress is being taught out, just like people say. Money and special Interest Groups that is all i have to say. Thank you. Tweet, the only people watching and listening to these speeches are cspan junkies. It doesnt matter, he asks. Several dozen of his colleagues came down to the floor to watch his speech and as we mentioned earlier, and this video is Available Online of his maiden speech. It has been viewed several thousand times already. Says, how to fix congress, take out the money and term limits. Marie,ther tweet from how about we give power back to the states. Paul is in orlando. He is a republican. Morning peter, thank you for taking my call. If the petersons are watching, i hope the morning finds them well. I agree with shirley about term limits, and i agree with the gentleman who said to do away with the 60 vote rule. Lady, the tweet that you just read, that is really the key. Send more power back to the state. The statesar that are the laboratory of new ideas, well, they are. You thing that i just know, just as a normal, average american guy. That over theme last eight years, nothing gets done. Here he read has been the most corrupt and corrosive Senate Majority leader in my 56 years. Republicans controlling the senate and things still dont seem to move. Ronald reagan and tip oneill were opposites and they were able to wheel and deal. They were total opposites and they were able to wheel and deal. The democrats want 12 weeks paid parental leave, the republicans want to tax reform, i dont understand why Mitch Mcconnell and harry reid and nancy pelosi and paul ryan cant get together and say, what do you want . What are you prepared to give for it . And maybe that would fix things. I dont know. Think all of us can agree that things are a mess in washington, d. C. And i have a technical question im not sure if you know the answer. But i have always waited at least 30 days to call in and when i call, three things happen. I get a busy signal, or the phone rings and you as come in and give my little bit, or it rings and rings and rings and my phone gets dropped. For us wondering, washington journal junkies, if the phone system drops after a tain amount of rings or if doing something you may not approve of . [laughter] you for taking my call, i will be talking to you until after thanksgiving. I hope you have a great thanksgiving. Host youtube. Have a great thanksgiving. Aaron is on the phones this morning, if you get a busy signal, it is because all of the lines are built up. , youu do get picked up on have won the lottery. And the dropping of the phones, and not sure if it is our phone system or the phone company, if it rings 100 times and then they decide to drop it, i dont know. I dont know the answer to that one. Im sure somebody downstairs will help me along the way. Reid andioned senator senator reid spoke this week as well about the functioning of the senate, specifically members attending debates. Watch bobbeen here to dole run for president , i have watched john kerry, barack obama who am i missing . John mccain. Every one of those senators was extremelys every one of those senators was extremely respectful and talks about their enthusiasm for the work they did in the senate. They did not denigrate the senate in any way. Never said the senate is a worthless place to be. Marco rubio started denigrating the senate. I couldnt quite understand that. Im very disappointed in somebody who spent an early part of his life in the senate when he was elected to represent the people of florida. The people of florida are not getting what they voted for. They need a senator. Dan is calling in from exeter, New Hampshire, on our democrat line. What is your solution and is one needed to fix congress . Caller good morning. Two quick suggestions. One is to restore the earmarks and keep it specifically for civic projects. The house is unmanageable because they have nothing to corral their numbers. And two, which is maybe a little more radical, extend the house terms to four years. Nowadays with a twoyear election cycle every other year is an election year. The government