senator richard burr joining his colleague tom coburn who is a medical doctor, republican from oklahoma unveiling what they call the seniors choice act that would help america's seniors by building a more sustainable medicare program through immediate reforms. pointing that many are rooted in long-standing and bipartisan ideas ta democrats and republicans will support something that senator burr is hoping democrats will join. some experts have warned the current medicare program is facing insolvency due to the unsustainable growth. here's more with the north carolina republican. >> over a year ago, tom and i started working on a medicare transformation bill. it was to take all the good suggestions that were introduced or talked about to try to see if weep could incorporate them in a bill that provides at the end of the day seniors with choice and transparency. if we can accomplish choice, then we can create competition in a new marketplace that we've seen work extremely well in medicare part d, the prescription drug plan. if you look at all the government estimates as to what part d wou

senators tom coburn and richard burr say they have a solution. senators earlier tonight. senators, nice to see you both. >> good to see you. >> greta: medicare, let me start with you, senator coburn so we understand. when under the existing system can we expect it will be insolvent, that they run out of money on medicare? >> if you take the worst case scenario, hospital trust fund, the fund that pays the hospital bills, will be out of money in 2016. each year that gets worse when the trustees look at it and say where are we? so each year it has gotten closer. the year before last it was 2017. the year before that, 2018. sometime around 2016, '17, we know we can say pretty specifically that the hospital trust fund will have no money. no money to pay the hospital bills for medicare. >> greta: senator burr, you and senator coburn have come up with a new idea. tell me how it's different from what we already have. >> let me say it's not new. we incorporated a lot of ideas from a lot of people in congress, and around the country. we tried to put in a b

the only senators to vote no were senator jeff bingaman, senator richard burr and senator tom coburn. officials are telling consumers throw away any raw milk from the family cow farm in chambersburg, p.a. they've seen growing demand because of concerns in hormones or traditional dairy products. >> back to that breaking news from egypt where two american women kidnapped earlier today have just been released. nbc's eamon modin has the latest from cairo. eamon. >> reporter: good morning, thomas. two american tourists have been released after being kidnapped on friday morning according to security officials. there was a group of tourists. it was there that armed bedouins intercepted this group of americans. two were kidnapped. they began intense negotiations with the local bedouin tribes to try to secure their release. we don't believe it was politically motivated for any reason. so we understand that they have now been released. all of this coming against the backup of a lot of political upheaval in the country for a third day in a row. protesters are clashing with security forces in cai

up next, republican senators tom coburn and richard burr weigh in on these payroll tax cuts. >> theyk him to sing silver and gold -- >> i think he looks handsome. >> he does. >> we'll talk to them coming up. >> come on -- >> we're going to get him on too. we'll be right back. >>> let's go to bill karins with the check on the forecast. bill? >> good morning, everyone, we are looking at wet weather headed for the east coast today, possibly a little bit of airport delays a little later today because of low visibility. we are watching that rain through ohio, pennsylvania, also some rain showers down there in georgia. we had a little bit of sleet reported in pennsylvania, but that shouldn't be too much of an issue as warm air is surging to the north. temperatures today just like yesterday, there won't be any sunshine, but it will be mild. temperatures in the 40s. d.c. could get to the 50s. the southeast, same story for you, middle of the country looks okay. we are actually warming it up in southern california. today l.a. around 71, but rain in the northwest. a sneak peek at friday's forec

the big fight is over medicare, and this morning senators tom coburn and richard burr began to have thatit's political suicide. >> robert. >> clearly, the democrats wong the payroll tax cut debate. obviously republicans can make the case. they took it off the table, out of the election discourse. the reality is the narrative building over the payroll tax cut, over protecting student loans for middle income kids, over a whole range of programs for job retraining, a focus on the democratic position being one standing up for the middle class and one of fairness. however, unless my party and the republican party get serious about dealing with the deficit, they'll be no real winner in the economy. >> patricia. >> i want to strike a cautionary note. this has not passed congress yet. i think today with the news there's an agreement, it's a huge win for president obama. he told congress to act. he told congress to extend this tax cut, and they did it. looks good for him. when you get into the details, there's a lot of spending in here that republicans don't like. there's also a lot of pay-fors i

richard burr from north carolina and tom coburn from the state of oklahoma.described as a third rail of politics because no voter, not one, really wants this messed with. why did you think this had to be done? >> well, soledad, everybody in washington sits idly by as the congressional budget office tell us about the involvancy of part a medicare some time between 2016 and 2022. tom and i felt as a member of congress we had a moral obligation to our parents and to our children to make sure that we saved medicare and that we put it on the financial footing that we would expect to hand over to them. and as we did that, to create choices where seniors could choose how they navigate health care which is very difficult and very expensive. what we've done is we put together a tremendous blue print that will seek the input of seniors, stakeholders, insurance companies and government officials for the next several months. >> let's walk through the blue print because the focus is on how you get prices to come down. that at the end of the day and if you have two theorie

representative rahall, jail zoya, ward mcgarricer, giles giovanazi and miles burr cet and on my staff the commerce committee minority side, richard russell and jared thompson, i want to say especially jared thompson who is the one i know the best because he is the aviation subcommittee ranking member staff leader and he knows the history of the aviation bills, he knows the subject matter, there was never a time when i would ask a specific or technical question that jared didn't know the answer, and i so appreciate his being on our staff and helping us through this very important time. so with that, mr. president, i yield the floor and i thank all of my colleagues and the house colleagues and staff for the work on this bill that i hope we will be able to pass when the vote comes at 5:30 this afternoon. thank you, mr. president, and i yield the floor. the presiding officer: the senator from west virginia. mr. rockefeller: i'm in the happy position of mimicking a lot of what my colleague, senator hutchison, has said. but for a very good reason. because when you go through an experience like senator hutchison and i have been through