host: senator roger wicker, republican of mississippi. we appreciate you being on "washington journal." about 45 minutes left in the show. we will turn to another issue that the senate is confronting, the trade adjustment act and trade treaties. we will be right back after this news update. >> quarter past the hour. the ceo and chairman of berkshire hathaway, warren buffett, is weighing in on the debt debate. in remarks earlier on cnbc, he says congress is playing with fire by considering not raising the u.s. debt ceiling and that there is no way to tell what might happen if the debt limit is not increased. he compared the debate over raising the debt limit to a game of russian roulette, calling it dangerous. meanwhile, jobless numbers in this hour so the number of people applying for unemployment benefits fell last week to the lowest level in seven weeks, although applications remain elevated. the labor department said applications for benefits dropped by 14,000 but have been above of 400,000 for 13 weeks, and that is evidence the job ma

, but that's what we need to focus on and i thank my colleagues for focusing on short time. >> roger wicker, mississippi. let me make sure everyone understands why we're here. we're here because had the vote at 5:00 been taken, there's no question that the majority leader would have been defeated in his effort to move off of the subject of the debt and on to another subject. to me, this represents a significant legislative victory for those of us who agree with the outcould going chairman of the joint chiefs of staff on our number one threat is the debt and we ought to be talking about that. there is one reason and one reason early that the senate is in session today, july 5, 2011 and this week and it's because we have been challenged to come back here and deal head with with the pressing issue facing our country and that's the debt, annual deficit and what are we going to deal with this. last week the republican leader asked him to come and meet with the president's lunch. >> they said it was not a conversation worth having. senator mcconnell renewed that invitation today in addressing his