host: rep anne-marie buerkle, thank you for coming in. guest: it is wonderful to be here. host: john boehner said if we want to see an increase in the debt ceiling and the debt limit, spending cuts that to happen. what do you think? guest: i think he is absolutely right. this nation right now has close to a $16 trillion debt and we will reach that debt ceiling soon. in order to get this country and the right direction, we need to get the spending under control. to just raise the debt ceiling is irresponsible. we cannot do that. host: are you concerned about the implications to the economy in terms of our credit rating? we saw what happened last year. guest: i think we missed a good opportunity in the last discussion regarding the debt ceiling. the cut, cap, and balance was the way to go. we could have avoided the downgrade of we have gone with that. there is a comprehensive spending plan to balance the budget for the amendment for this country. i think that would have been a good way to go verses what ended up happening. the budget control act has become a very big problem

we will talk to congress ann marie buerkle about the republican house agenda going into the 2012 electioneason. as part of our weekly spotlight on magazines, christian science monitor staff writer pete scott's talks about his story on new technology that will allow the noaa to research and predict tornadoes. washington journal begins live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c-span. >> when people are saying to him, don't take the vice presidency, right now you are the most -- you are a powerful majority leader. don't take the vice presidency. he won't have any power to johnson says power is where power grows. meaning i can make power in any situation in his whole life, nothing in his life previously makes that seem because that is exactly what he has done all he is life. >> sunday night, the conclusion of passage of power, volume four end years of lyndon johnson. sunday night on c-span's "q&a." saturday nights, c-span 2 is airing the nixon tapes. this saturday, hear conversations between president nixon and white house special counsel and keep pfizer shut olson who passed away last month as they talk