Gene Taylor: “in South Mississippi this morning, four families of National Guardsmen will be notified that their loved ones died…”

“in South Mississippi this morning, four families of National Guardsmen will be notified that their loved ones died yesterday in Iraq. Last Friday, as I visited Walter Reed, I had the opportunity to visit five Mississippians, three of whom are amputees, all of whom are National Guardsmen or Reservists. As the gentlewoman from California just mentioned, over 40 percent of all the people serving in Iraq right now are Guardsmen and Reservists, and a disproportionately high percentage of the deaths and wounds have been received by them. One way we tried to make it up to them for their supreme sacrifice to our Nation was to see to that those Guardsmen and Reservists who choose to can buy into the TRICARE health care coverage provided by our Nation to every other member of the Armed Forces, the regular soldier to their right, the regular Marine to their left. It was brought up in committee, and by a majority vote the Armed Services Committee voted to allow National Guardsmen and Reservists to buy into TRICARE. But somewhere between the committee and the Rules Committee, someone decided that there was mandatory spending involved.…”