Showing support for the troops

By Weekly Archive On Jun 3, 2008

It’s
one thing to brag about supporting the troops. It’s another to do so.
And George Bush and John McCain are braggers.

The
GI Bill is one of the most important government programs ever
created, right up there with Social Security and Medicare. It was
first passed by Congress in 1944 and signed into law by President
Franklin Roosevelt, as the final program of his New Deal. FDR wanted
to avoid a repeat of the Great Depression that followed World War I
and did not want WWII veterans to suffer the same fate as veterans of
the Great War, who were given little more than $60 and a train ticket
home.

Under
terms of the first GI Bill, World War II vets who had served a
minimum of two years were eligible for government assistance in
getting a college education, with grants covering the cost of books,
fees and tuition up to $500 a year. The program was enormously
successful. College enrollment exploded. In 10 years, 7.8 million of
16 million World War II vets had taken advantage of the program. And
economists estimated that, for every one government dollar spent on
educating GIs, seven new dollars were pumped into the American
economy.

What
worked so well for World War II veterans should not have been limited
to them, and it wasn’t. Congress made the same educational
opportunities available to veterans of the Korean War and, later, the
war in Vietnam. Eventually, an even higher percentage of Vietnam vets
than World War II vets took advantage of the benefits of the GI bill.
And now two Vietnam vets have moved to extend the program even
further.

In
a rare display of bipartisanship, Sens. Jim Webb (D-Virginia) and
Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska), both decorated veterans of Vietnam, are
sponsoring legislation to upgrade the GI bill and make it available
to veterans of today’s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. To qualify,
veterans must have served since Sept. 11 in any branch of the
military, including the National Guard and Reserves. Depending on
their length of service, veterans could receive payments covering up
to four years’ tuition at the most expensive in-state public college,
plus a monthly housing stipend.

Surely
most Americans agree that helping vets get a college education and
start a new career is the least we can do to honor those who stepped
up to defend our country in the aftermath of Sept. 11. The Webb-Hagel
legislation, in fact, passed the Senate 75-22. Only the most
hard-hearted could oppose it, and for only the flimsiest of reasons.

But
Bush and McCain say they oppose offering benefits of the GI Bill to
today’s veterans because it’s too expensive and because it will
discourage troops from re-enlisting. Poppycock. True, the expanded
program would cost about $2 billion a year. That’s a lot of money,
but it’s less than the cost of one
week of
the war in Iraq.

It’s
also true, as McCain regularly points out, that the Congressional
Budget Office estimates that the new GI Bill would cause a 16 percent
drop in re-enlistment rates across all four branches of the military.
But McCain fails to mention that the very same study predicts a 16
percent uptick in new recruits, who would be attracted to join the
military by the same educational opportunities. Hypocrisy, thy name
is McCain.

There
is simply no excuse for denying veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan the
same benefits enjoyed by veterans of earlier wars. But this is not
the first time that McCain, who prides himself on his family’s three
generations of military service, has double-crossed his fellow
veterans. In Congress, he’s voted for veterans’ benefits only 30
percent of the time, according to the scorecard of the Disabled
Americans for America.

And
for George Bush, this is just one more example of saying one thing
and doing another. He even had the audacity to honor the troops on
Memorial Day while threatening to veto the educational benefits
millions of them are counting on. At least, observed the New York
Times, he’s consistent: "Having saddled the military with a
botched, unwinnable war, having squandered soldiers’ lives and failed
them in so many ways, the commander in chief now resists giving the
troops a chance at better futures out of uniform."

One
thing is for sure: If Bush and McCain have any questions about the
merits of the GI Bill, they don’t have to go far for answers. McCain
could ask fellow Sens. Frank Lautenberg, Ted Stevens, John Warner and
Jim Webb, all of whom got their college education thanks to the GI
Bill. And George Bush could ask his own father.

Had
he listened to his father five years ago, Bush might not have sent
young Americans to risk their lives in an unnecessary war. Had he
listened to him today, he might not deny them the opportunity to
improve their lives, if they’re lucky enough to come back home alive.

Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "Train
Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too
Soon)."
You can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site:
billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.