eric pianin has been our guest. next, we turn to energy, policy, what republican gains mean for that. first, here is a news update. >> president obama says he supports india's bid for a permanent seat on the un security council. the announcement came during a speech to the indian parliament. india has been pushing for a permanent security council membership for years. you can hear the president's speech in its entirety at 10:00 eastern on c-span radio. in iraq, leaders of the main political blocs are holding a meeting. secretary hillary clinton will not confirm that factions have reached a deal to form the new government. on capitol hill, the causes of the gulf oil spill will be presented for the first time by investigators from president obama's independent commission. the findings could shift the blame of the dispute to companies responsible. the three companies' most involved are halliburton, transocean, and bp. they will be on hand to respond to questions and respond to allegations. those are some of the latest

host: our guest this morning eric pianin talking about racing the debt ceiling. the headline in the washington times this morning. unfettered vote on the raising the debt ceiling. what is this? guest: [laughs] um... well the debt ceiling is set by congress by law and basically, it put as limit on the amount of borrowing by the federal government to cover it's operations and to repay borrowing from foreign countries and domestic investors. host: why is it that congress has to raise it? has to have this vote to begin with? guest: well if you look at history through 1917 during world war i. law was passed requiring congress to set a ceiling on borrowing that the government can do. and that law has prevails since then, but it's also been a source of great political mischief and maneuvering. it's really in some ways kind of shameless politics which forces the party of power to pull up it's boots and make the unpopular vote to raise the debt ceiling while the party out of power stands on the sidelines and hoots and cheers and criticizes the party in power for irrespons