the proposed reforms to the tricare program. as you know, sharply rising health-care costs are consuming an ever larger share of this department's budget. growing from $19 billion in 2001 to $52.50 billion in this request. among other reforms, this budget includes modest increases to try care enrollment fees, leader indexed with the national health expenditures for working age retirees. most of whom are employed while receiving pensions. all six members of the joint chiefs of staff have strongly endorsed these and other cost- saving tricare reforms in a letter to the congress. let me be clear. the current tricare arrangement, one in which fees have not increased for 15 years, is simply unsustainable. and if allowed to continue, the department of defense risks the fates of other corporate and government bureaucracies that were crippled by personal cost and in particular their retiree benefit packages. the house approved most of our proposed changes in its version of the authorization bill. i strongly urge the senate to endorse ou

that in turn led us to propose increases in tricare enrollment fees, for working age retirees. these increases are modest and manageable and leave fees well below the inflation out of pocket costs set in 1995 when the current fees were established. we sincerely hope you will see fit to pass it. it is clearly eating us alive. please know that we will continue to invest in critical care areas to include research, diagnosis and treatment of mental health issues and traumatic brain injury. enhanced access to health services and new battlefield technologies. we understand that changes to health care benefits will cause concern among people, we serve and the communities from which we receive care. but we also understand and hold sacred our obligation to care completely for those who have borne the brunt of these wars as well as those for whom the war never ends. i remain convinced that we haven't begun to understand completely the toll that war extracts from our people. just as the grandchildren of world war ii vets still struggle to comprehend the full scope of the horror those men

guest: medicare, medicaid, and tricare, which is the program for military. if you take a look at what is happening -- we all know the baby boomers are retiring. we say that and we take that as a fact in our heads. what we don't realize is we have about 10,000 to 12,000 people every day newly joining medicare. and if you take those people and you multiplied the fact that the cbo said that the amount of money we spend per surgical operation or procedure or visit to the doctor also increases, you get kind of the compound interest affect on the wrong side. not just going up 5% a year, but going up 5% yr + three% a year and that the largest component of spending. the one thing if you mentioned, people go semi hysterical about it. host: what if the country went back to the clinton era tax structure, would it help? guest: theoretically, yes. if you let the tax cuts coming up for renewal next year expire entirely, you would save a substantial amount, probably around $3 trillion off of projected debt. but the argument is, if you do that, the economy will slow down. t

that i preceded it problematic for the committee to have the department of defense and specifically tricare be the provider of this population. i'm not going to go back through my case but i will make at the appropriate time, but you've been out with the marines, you've been out with their families, oh, what do they think what's do they want to be under dod and tricare or do they want to be under va? >> thanks for asking that, senator burr, because the general consensus is that everybody i speak to, and i would ask anybody, anybody who recommends that we be turned back over to the department of defense, very people that were responsible for poisoning us for our health care, say trust them, when today they're still denying that they did anything wrong, how would that work out? i mean, i'm sorry. dod still hasn't stepped up to the plate on this issue. they are still in the nile, and they're fighting and scratching at every inch to deny and like i said in my test we can so why would anybody even ask us to trust the department of defense with our health care? and that's the way, senator burr, m

the provisions extending health insurance coverage and pending children under 26 did not extend to tricare or champ va beneficiaries. the fiscal 2011 national defense authorization act enacted earlier this year gave the defense department the authority it needed to extend tricare coverage to young adults. this leads on the champ va beneficiaries without this extended dillinger nobody. it is only fair to afford children who are chance va beneficiaries the same eligibility. surely coverage for veterans family members and in need should meet this national standard. the american legion supports this bill. s 1104, the transition assistance program audit act of 2011 calls for an independent third-party audit of the department of labor transition assistance program were tap every three years to ensure it is providing services up-to-date and useful to serve as members and spouses making the initial transition from military service to the civilian work place. while acknowledging the current efforts underway to reform the top program the fact remains it should not have taken the department of labor

. >> host: the bill was approved by the house last week, and part of that included increasing in tricareees for working age retirees for the first time in 15 years, a decision that's critical in curving the health care spending for the department. >> guest: yes, like i said, the costs are going up, and this is going to be, you know, the question is how do you -- how can you pay for everything? how can we afford it? i think those are the issues coming to the floor now. >> host: the senate has yet to take up that defense authorization bill and plans to do so next month; is that right? >> guest: yes. >> host: john in wisconsin, independent caller. >> caller: you've been talking about the issue of costs of the military, and what i was wondering is since we have a large defense budget and a large national deficit, i see signs all the time that say we support the troops and cut my taxes. i don't know how you have military spending and constantly put it on a credit card. i'm an independent and generally pretty conservative, but it bother me that our nieces who are 3 years old could be paying fo

tricare about them whether kentucky come a california, at o.r. merrill lynch. we are united states. we should care about the people i just give up and play games. per is the little spark that creates economic activity in areas that are distressed c and creates the jobs allever across the country prepare every dollar of investment as tracks the evolution liu some chart. when we vote for this bill bill, this is theutho authorization, not appropriation, we have authorized a 500 million to starkly in the last couple years although has been around 30250. every dollar as tracks seven -- $7 from the private sector. that is the fact it has been documented a congressional testimony that is the history of that m eda. people say how much it is here is what we know.arou >> is an average of $3,000 a job. that is a good return. 220 and 500 jobs are created for every $1 million of investment. here is what we know. between 210,450,000 jobs were created everybody in the senate i think, although it could bed wrong has been asked what is the mosto important thing we have to do today? help to spur job