after him, james mcgovern, democrat from massachusetts will be out here as well. thee continue on "washington journal." [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] >> when helen taft became first lady in 1909, 1 of the first thing she did was address having cherry trees planted around the tidal basin. the tidal basin in the early 20th century was a mess. the japanese heard about her interests and they decided to give 2000 trees to the united states in her honor. everyone was shocked. the trees that were sent were older and very tall and bug infested. so, it was decided they would have to be burned. in fact, president taft himself made the decision. were veryse accommodating and understanding and decided to send a thousand trees, which arrived in 1912. it is those that we still have a few of around the tidal basin. >> watch our program on helen taft on our website www.c- span.org/first ladies or see it saturday at 7:00 p.m. eastern. we continue our series live next monday as we look atellen and ed

the next "washington scott garrett about raising the federal debt ceiling, then representative james mcgovernjeremy on how they are looking into last year's attacks in libya. live at 7:00 a.m. eastern on c- span. john boehner announced today the house would vote on a short- term spending bill this week. it would also defund the affordable care act. discusseds also raising the debt ceiling and changing the tax code. american families and small businesses just doing fine in this economy. is aboutter speech justifying his failed policies. failures isiggest adding 6 trillion dollars to the national debt. they have used the .ebt limit president obama used it to put controls on spending. this year will not be different. we will continue to do everything we can to repeal the president's failed health care law. this week, the house will pass -- to lock the sequester savings in an defund obamacare. the president signed seven bills over the last two and a half changes to obama and i hope our friends in the thise have plans to make an eight time. the law is a train wreck. protestedent has american big b

then representative james mcgovern on the food stamp program. reporter on house hearings looking into last year's attacks on the u.s. consulate in benghazi, libya. >> there should be no conversation about shutting the government down. that is not the goal here. our goal is to cut spending and to protect the american people from obamacare. as simple as that. no interest in our part in shutting the government down. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] boehnerat was speaker addressing the issues of the federal budget and health care and the houseplants to push ahead on those issues. as ant to hear from you federal budget showdown looms in congress here in washington as well. host: if you have a comment on some of the federal budget proceedings going on here in washington, you

and james clapper, the confessed purr juroror have thought in their interests to cater to the wishes of the white house which have been very clear this time we want to strike syria. >> ray mcgovern. in syria, the conflict rages on. an ancient christian village of maaloula that was stormed by hebles a few years ago. we were able to enter the village and our correspondent has this report for you. >> we entered maaloula through its ancient investigates burnt and damaged after recent attacks after the syrian army announced many of the militants were pushed back. signs of a recent battle and destruction were everywhere. we were told to move fast and to follow the military's vehicles without stopping or even slowing down. there are some parts of the road where we have to speed up. officers still fear there could be snipers around. we hear them shouting go, go, fast. on one turn, we suddenly stop. it's hard to understand exactly what happened. we only hear a loud boom and feel the earth shake. we get out of the car to take a look around. we're now inside maaloula village. it is hard to believe that what used to be one of the biggest shrines of christian community all over the world now