Should GI Bill be in war supplemental?

[babylonsister]

Should GI Bill be in war supplemental?
Posted April 29, 2008 7:15 PM
The Swamp

by Aamer Madhani


The lawmakers and veterans' advocates who gathered behind Sens. Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) this afternoon for a Capitol Hill rally to promote an overhaul of educational benefits for Iraq and Afghanistan vets were an A-list lot.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), gushed about the importance of doing right by the current crop of veterans. And Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), the ranking member of the Senate Armed Services Committee and a World War II veteran, reminded the crowd that it was unlikely that he would have become a senator if it weren't for the fact that the Montgomery GI Bill paid for his undergraduate and law school tuition.

Even the actor that played the head of NBC on Seinfeld showed up to cast his support for the Webb-Hagel proposal.

Just a few months ago, Webb's and Hagel's call to modernize the bill was hardly registering with their colleagues. They repeatedly pointed out to their colleagues that service members serving in a war time were receiving a GI Bill that had been last updated with a peace time standard, while the administration expressed concern that an overhaul could push active-duty troops to ditch the military for college.

As of today, their proposal now has 58 sponsors in the Senate and 249 in the House.

Despite President Bush again today calling on Congress to send him a $108 billion war spending bill free of extraneous programs, Democratic leaders will likely include the proposal in the upcoming supplemental war spending bill, a senior Democratic aide said.

more...

http://www.swamppolitics.com/news/politics/blog/2008/04/should_gi_bill_be_in_war_suppl.html#more

[islandmkl]

1. Neocons version of the military: Do your duty to your country.

Neocons version of veterans' benefits: Do not become a leech on society.

"We make warriors to make war. Not to make veterans."

f*** all the neoconazis...they cannot possibly be brought to the justice they deserve.

4056 and counting...