Continues to be one of his top priorities. We want to know what that term drain the swamp. Means to you. How do you define it . What do you think is the best way to go about draining it . Phone lines are open this morning for you to call in on the washington journal. Democrats, 2027488000 is your number. Republicans, 2027488001 is your number. Independents can call in at 2027488002. You can also catch up with us social media, on twitter, cspanwj. On facebook, facebook. Com cspan. Were asking about this term drain the swamp, want to hear your thoughts on what it means to you. For more on what the Trump Administration has been doing to try to drain the swamp, lets bring in a lobbying reporter with the Washington Post, joins us now by phone. Katherine, good morning to you. Guest good morning. Host a recent headline from the Washington Post, dromp is showing how tough it is to drain the swamp. He knows that this is open to interpretation of what that term means. Lets start there. How does donald trump defining the swamp . Guest he defines it actually pretty broadly. Weve seen him speak out against lobbyists. I think one of the ways that he sees draining the swamp can be done is by removing lobbyists influence from his transition and from his administration. Host so lets talk about some of the specific bans hes proposed. He laid some of these out in his contract with the American Voter before the election. But what does he move what is he moving forward with since the election . Guest hes put forth a threepart plan to kind of rid his administration both on the incoming side and outgoing side from lobbyists. It focuses more on folks who have who, you know, down the line, will who may want to lobby afterwards. So he makes it much harder for them to lobby as theyre leaving the executive branch. One of the rules would say you have to wait five years before you can become a lobbyist, a registered lobbyist, and the other one, which is actually more stringent and permanent, would say that if you work in the administration and you want to become a lobbyist for foreign government, so this is what a lot of people call foreign agents. And it just means that you work in washington on behalf of foreign countries. You actually cannot do that for the rest of your life. Its a lifetime ban. And on the incoming side of the revolving door, trump has said he wont allow any lobbyists to work in his administration. That rule is seen as flimsy by experts because all you really have to do is file paperwork to say youre no longer a lobbyist and then you can come in. Host in terms of the lobbying ban, is that sort of thing enforceable . Are there certain bans on lobbying right now that this sort of builds on . Host yeah, so as far as the five yoor ban, right now there are ethics rules about a oneyear ban and a twoyear ban in place. This applies to former members of congress, if youre a member of the house, you join a lobby firm. You have to wait one year before you lobby your former colleagues. For the senate, its two years. And either one or twoyear ban applies to Senior Administration officials in the Obama Administration. So there are rules in place already. What donald trump does is he extends that time period that you have to wait before you can lobby. And as far as the lobbying ban on people coming into the administration, its a little more vague than what obama put in place with his executive border. Obama said if youve been a lobbyist in the past two years and. To come into government, you cant work specifically on an issue that you lobbied on in the past two years. So it was a bit more tailored on what issues you actually lobbied on. Whereas trumps ban is kind of across the board. Host donald trump also focusing on sort of shrinking the size and the reach of the federal government. Can you talk a little bit about his efforts and his proposals there . And yeah, hes Congressional Republicans have talked a bit about reducing some of the benefits and work security for federal workers. So, you know, were not really sure yet how those are going to be implemented exactly and what the details are. But there is some sense that, like you said on the campaign trail, he sees the federal bureaucracy as bloated, and hes looking for ways to streamline it a bit. Host catherine ho covering all these issues. Appreciate your time this morning on the washington journal. Guest thank you. Host were asking our viewers to call in this morning. What is draining the swamp mean to you . You just heard about some of the proposals that donald trump is moving ahead with. Well talk about how theyre being received throughout our first 45 minutes, but want to hear from enthuse morning. David is up first, oxon hill, maryland, independent. David, good morning. Caller hey, good morning. Thanks for cspan. Can you hear me . Host yes, sir. What does draining the swamp mean to you . Caller well, what president elect trump said is hes going to get rid of corruption and things like hat. What it means is republicans are the swamp, and what weve done with this past he selection increased the swamp. Thats my opinion. Because theyre the ones that have stalled the economy. Theyre the ones that have made , if that the president anything was good, if it was good for the American People, that to me is a swamp that needs to get rid of, but apparently weve increased the swamp. Host a lot of the focus has been on the influence of lobbyists. Do you think lobbyists are part of the problem, and do you think its just republicans that are influenced by lobbyists or both sides are . Caller to be fair, i think theres a lot of corruption and quid pro quo on both sides, democrats and republican. And i think thats part of the reasons why you had a lot of people voting for bernie, a lot of people voting for trump, because people are upset, and hopefully he can get rid of corruption and change the way things have done. Because the way things are done ow, its like kind of living in a bubble. People are out in the country. Its like they dont even they know what the problems are , but they dont listen to the people. Look at 90 of the people wanted expanded background checks, even republicans, even gun owners. So how can 90 of the population, 60 republicans, and everybody wanted a change, but the change doesnt happen. Host david in oxon hill, maryland. Were talking about draining the swamp, your thoughts on what that term means, how president elect donald trump should go about doing it. Mike is on our line for republicans. Mike, go ahead. Youre up next. Caller yes, thank you for taking my call. Basically, of course, i think most people, everyone can agree that we need to get rid of waste, corruption, fraud, and abuse, and sweep the lobbyists out of d. C. But there are conservatives, and then there are conservatives. Im somewhere to the right of attilla the hun. The agenda is bloshing the federal reserve. Just let me give you a few examples, some examples of what i mean by shrinking the government in washington, d. C. , that we not only dont need an income tax, but we need to allow the states to take over the functions that the federal government has, or eliminate it. We need to blosh the c. I. A. , abolish the f. B. I. , abolish the e. P. A. , abolish the department of education, you know, basically make government so small that you can drown it in a bathtub. Host are you confident that donald trump will do that . Caller well, you know, hes i hope so. Hes never been quite as vociferous as i. Just want to make government really small to where we are taxed, washington, the federal reserve, and abolishing virtually all of our agencies hat we have that are unnecessary, and it gets in the way of growth and expanding the economy and get rid of the bureau of land management, things like that. Unnecessary, and host here in washington, d. C. Phone numbers again, democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Ndependents, 2027488002. Fayetteville, North Carolina, on the line, donna, your thoughts on draining the swamp. What does it mean . Caller it means hes going to get rid of all the benefits that Social Security people live on, the poor people live on, were not going to get our healthcare, our raises, nothing. I think they need to get rid of the Electoral College and let the people speak. They need to get rid of all the lobbyists and let the congress and senate do their job without tacking on all this extra crap on there. Host why get rid of all the lobbyists . Caller because, they need to speak their mind, but not necessarily tack it on to another bill. Let Congress Deal with the issues of the country. Host when you talk to some lobbyists, they say that theyre right their right to be a lobbyist, their job, is enslibed in the constitution, the First Amendment, when it said Congress Shall make no law among other things restricting the right of people to petition the government for redress of grievances. Caller and i understand that. But what theyre doing is theyre making it so that we cant pass the laws that have to be. Because they tack it on to the end of a good law. So they cant pass anything. And thats why it takes years to get something passed through congress and the senate. Theyre just cluttering it. If they want to have lobbyists, then have it on a special bill and not tacked on to other things. Host all right. Donna in North Carolina a. Lot of people like donna feeling that lobbyists have too much influence in washington. A recent Gallup Survey looked into this, and heres the numbers on it. The question was asked by gallup, how much influence do you think each of the following has on members of congress on how they vote in their legislation . Major donors were seen as having 64 of respondents said major donors have a lot of influence, followed by lobbyists, 55 of respondents to that Gallup Survey said lobbyists had a lot of now how members of Congress Vote on legislation. Party leaders coming in third there, 45 saying they had a lot of influence. People in the district they represent, only 14 of respondents said that people in the district, that members of congress represent have influence, a lot of influence on how members of Congress Vote on their legislation. An interesting gallup poll from this summer that you can check out on their website. Want to hear from you, though, on this term draining the swamp. How should donald trump go about doing it . Jasper is in washington, an independent. Jasper, good morning. Caller hows it going, sir . I believe that draining the swamp means the Less Government the better. I believe the states should be able to run it themselves. Any federal mandate basically should be released. Agree with 100 trumps stance on that. Definitely, as you can see, like you said, its hard to drain the swamp when its full everywhere. I believe our government is ran by separate interests, and thats where i stand. Host what would you consider success for donald trump . How much does he need to drain the swamp . What does he need to do . Caller i believe partisan, at least 0 , private, friday back privately. Hillarys idea of bringing it to 15 an hour, thats asinine. Thats just going to seek out the private investors. Theyre not going to be able to afford to pay that, but slowly, incrementally do that, well be able to do that. And the lobbyist is a huge, huge part of that. Host it means getting rid of the pay to play inept government that squanders our money. We want to hear from your ewers, you can tweet at, cspanwj. Or call 2027488000 for democrats, 2027488001 is the number for republicans, 2027488002 is the number for independents to call in in this first 45 minutes. We talked about Donald Trumps efforts to for term limits on members of congress. A sfrore the Washington Post on that. They note that of all the promises made on the campaign trail, Donald Trumps vow to pass a constitutional amendment to impose term limits on members of Congress Might be the most daunting. Senate Majority Leader Mitch Mcconnell dismissed the idea out of hand the day after trumps stunning victory. A few days later, House Speaker paul ryan gave the proposal a helped endorsement as he indicated it would be up to a House Committee to consider Donald Trumps proposal. The story noting what remains to be seen is before donald trump uses the president ial bully pulpit to Lobby Congress to adopt the idea along with other ideas he unveiled in a Campaign Speech in colorado. That was his contract with the American Voter that we talked about. To give you a sense of how long members of congress have been in washington, d. C. , for that term limits issue, if you think members of congress have been around too long, heres some of the numbers from that Washington Post story. Of the 100 senators, 64 have served in their seats less than 10 years. The story noting that a deck ad ago, 17 senators had served more than 25 years in the senate. Today, 9 have served at least a quarter century. And on the house side, there have been a bit of turnover in recent years, at least more so than has been in recent decades. More than 240 of the 435 current members of congress have served since january 2009, when president obama first took the oath of office. Term limits one of the key issues donald trump is proposing, along with lobbyist bans of both incoming and lobbying bans for those who leave a Trump Administration. Is that enough to drain the swamp in washington . Clarence is up, republican, go ahead. Caller thank you for cspan. I appreciate it. Draining the swamp to me means looking at these different departments within this monstrous government and changing out not just the secretaries of those temperatures, but going much doper in changing out many of that have leftists gotten implanted, and that includes the director, assistant directors, and many hers that actually run these inefficient departments and spend their time, the secretaries, that is, out making speeches and so forth. And really not getting anything done. The bushed administration did fairly easy with that, and i hope theyll have administers that will make many, many changes budgetwise and personnelwise. Host theres a headline from the column in market watch recently saying that to drain the swamp of corruption, Congress Must require donald trump to divest his business, saying congress should build a big beautiful wall between the white house and the trump organization, that that would be part of this effort to drain the swamp. Do you think thats important for donald trump not to be seen as being entangled by his business interests and president of the United States . Caller well, his businesses are much different than many others such as someone who owns a lot of stock and can put that to rest. But with real estate, i dont think he should be expected to divest himself at bargain prices of so much properties. I think there needs to be some walls put up. But if its left up to the democrats, they would rather leave him broke serving, so there is problems, but those can be worked out. Thank you very much. Host all right, lets hear from mary, a democrat in new york. Mary, good morning. Caller actually, im an independent. Host ok. Caller ill tell you why i called. Everybody says george 43, george bush, that he spent a lot of time. You know what he did . The soldiers and the people that fought the war, the Second World War, and even after they were soldiers and in the service fighting for this country, wherever they got them a il he gave decent wage, all of them, like my husband was in the service, and my mother had to help the rt us, and george gave Service People a decent, you know, at least a reasonable pay to live off of. I get so tired of everybody banging on george w. Bush, george 43, george bush 43. He was a good man. Host mary, when you talk about trying to give people a decent wage to live off of caller do you know what they paid the soldiers in the Second World War . 21 a month. Did you know that . Host i did not, mary. But if you could bring it forward caller well, i do, because my brother was in the Second World War. Ive been following politics since i was 10 years old. And the soldiers were just true americans and were fighting for this country. Host thank you for the call from new york. A lot of other viewers want to demall and talk about this idea of draining the swamp. Warren, ohio, an independent. Good morning. Caller yes, it sounds like you got a lot of elderly people who call in to this on cspan. Im in my late 40s. And i just dont understand the way any of them think. When i hear drain the swamp, it means get rid of all corruption. It means get rid of any kind of ties between the government and business and giving business, welfare, like donald trump has been getting his entire life. Id like for everybody to wanted that he is a welfare queen. The true definition of a welfare queen. He gets more help from the government than any of us could ever get from the government. What i think needs to happen is we need a generation of people to go away and let the younger people get some education, and please, cspan, please start to educate people who call in. They dont know what theyre talking about, and i know youre in washington, you live in the swamp. You know whats going on. And half of these people, they dont know that a democrat is a republican, and a republican is a democrat. Thats what the problem is. Theyre one in the same. We have one party, and that one party is the Corporate Party that is running this country into the ground. Host it sounds like you want all members of congress to go away and a new