McCain's Elitism and the New GI Bill

Posted by Mike Connery, AlterNet at 12:33 PM on April 30, 2008.

Jim Webb and John McCain are throwing down over the new GI Bill and the dividing lines are pretty startling, especially when the current threads of the presidential race are considered. Charges of elitism are being thrown at Obama left and right, as are questions about his patriotism. Meanwhile, John McCain is actively working against a bill that would provide robust support to our troops as they transition back to civilian life.

The bill is the updated version of the GI Bill that helped so many soldiers finance their education after WWII. Sen. Jim Webb has proposed a bill with broad bipartisan support that would provide serious support to our veterans:

• Make benefits available to all members of the military who have served on active duty since 9/11/2001, including activated reservists and National Guard.
  
• Provide benefits for tuition, housing, and books for up to 36 months of education for Iraq and Afghanistan veterans.
  
• Link amount of benefits to amount of time served on active duty.
  
• Increase amount of time after leaving active duty to collect educational assistance to fifteen years compared to ten.
  
• Allows additional payments for tutorial assistance as well as licensure and certification tests.
  
• Create a new program in which the government will agree to match, dollar for dollar, any voluntary additional contributions to veterans from institutions whose tuition is more expensive than the maximum assistance provided.

McCain has proposed a much watered down version of this bill that would provide most benefits to career officers. If shortchanging the grunts to enrich the officers isn't elitist, I don't know what is. What's worse, now that he's come under fire for his weak-ass proposal, he's trying to shift the blame to Sen. Webb.

From the Politico:

There are fundamental differences,” McCain told Politico. “He creates a new bureaucracy and new rules. His bill offers the same benefits whether you stay three years or longer. We want to have a sliding scale to increase retention. I haven’t been in Washington, but my staff there said that his has not been eager to negotiate.”

“He’s so full of it,” Webb said in response. “I have personally talked to John three times. I made a personal call to [McCain aide] Mark Salter months ago asking that they look at this.”

Here's Webb's side of the story:

“I’ve been doing veterans law for 30 years. The GI bill is designed as a readjustment benefit for people who leave the military,” Webb said. For the Marines and the Army — which account for the brunt of the fighting — he estimates as many as 70 percent to 75 percent rotate out after a single four-year enlistment.

Webb’s new GI education benefits would apply, then, to anyone who has served up to 36 months of qualified active duty beginning at the same time as or after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. “These are the people who answered the call,” Webb said at the rally Tuesday. “These are the people who moved willingly forward toward the sound of the guns.”

Here's McCain and Def. Secretary Gates counter-argument:

By contrast, Gates wrote in his letter that “our first objective is to strengthen the All-Volunteer Force” and “re-enlistments (and longer service) are critical to the success of the All-Volunteer Force.” From this vantage point, a too-generous GI Bill is counterproductive, and the defense secretary warns that “serious retention issues could arise” if the benefit were extended above the average costs for a public four-year college.

Don't know about you, but I'm with Webb. We should reward people who answered the call. The GI Bill was a huge boon to the "Greatest Generation" and the American economy after World War II. It can be the same for Millennials returning from two, three, or more tours of duty Iraq and Afghanistan. We owe them that. As a veteran, Senator McCain should know that.

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Tagged as: iraq, webb, afghanistan, veterans, mccain, gi bill

Michael Connery is the author of Youth to Power: How Today's Young Voters Are Building Tomorrow's Progressive Majority. He blogs about progressive youth organizing at Future Majority and is an adviser to a number of progressive youth organizations.