The point he was making, as I see it, was two fold.
First, the relative cost of taking care of just the military is a fraction of multi-trillions it would cost to take care of everyone.
Second, the VA system sucks. Most people know this, and avoid VA hospitals whenever possible.
Finally, by the numbers, how much would care for everyone based on the VA system cost?
The VA system costs $53 Billion dollars according to Obama's budget, yet is serves only 8 million vets. If that number seems low, many Vets do not enroll in the VA system.
There are currently 306 Million people in the US. That would be roughly $2,027 Billion dollars to cover everyone under the VA system.
The total tax revenue for 2009 is estimated at $2.33 Trillion dollars.
Does this seem doable to you?