"GI Benefits Versus All Volunteer Military Retention"

Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., speaks at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial on Monday, May 26, 2008, in Albuquerque.

Facing heat from Democrats, John McCain used a Memorial Day appearance to defend his opposition to Senate-passed legislation that would provide additional college financial aid to veterans.

Last week, the Democratic-controlled Senate approved the bill, which would substantially increase educational benefits for service members returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. Lawmakers blocked a more limited version that McCain supported.

"I am running for the office of commander in chief. That is the highest privilege in this country, and it imposes the greatest responsibilities. And this is why I am committed to our bill, despite the support Senator Webb's bill has received," McCain, a Navy veteran and Vietnam prisoner of war, said at the New Mexico Veterans Memorial. "It would be easier, much easier politically for me to have joined Senator Webb in offering his legislation."

"More importantly, I feel just as he does, that we owe veterans the respect and generosity of a great nation because no matter how generously we show our gratitude it will never compensate them fully for all the sacrifices they have borne on our behalf," the Arizona senator said.

However, McCain said he opposed Webb's measure because it would give the same benefit to everyone regardless of how many times he or she has enlisted. He said he feared that would depress reenlistments by those wanting to attend college after only a few years in uniform. Rather, McCain said the bill he favored would have increased scholarships based on length of service.

On Saturday, Obama told veterans while campaigning in Puerto Rico: "I don't understand why John McCain would side with George Bush and oppose our plan to make college more affordable for our veterans. George Bush and John McCain may think our plan is too generous. I could not disagree more."

McCain said Monday: "I take a back seat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans."

The military, however, worries that better benefits will degrade the services warfighting ability by prompting excessive numbers of men and women to leave the services.

The current GI Bill pays veterans of active-duty service a maximum of $1,101 a month for 36 months -- four academic years -- of schooling.

While more than half of the men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan have been National Guardsmen or Reservists, those citizen-soldiers get short shrift from the present program.

Reservists' and National Guardsmen's education benefits amount at best to only about a third of what active-duty service members receive under the program.

And veterans education benefits are not an automatic entitlement of service under the Montgomery GI Bill. Service members have to buy into the program with $1,200 to $1,800 of their own money, which they never see again if they fail to use their education benefits.

U.S. Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., a Marine veteran of combat in Vietnam, is leading the charge to give former service members a better shot at getting an education and moving productively back into civilian society, which was the goal of the original World War II GI Bill of Rights. By providing the chance for higher education to millions of veterans, the GI Bill reshaped American society, experts say.

"The history of the GI Bill was that it covered all tuition, books and a monthly [living] stipend," Webb said in an interview. With his bill, "we were trying to mirror that."

Webb's proposal would cost $2.5 billion to $4 billion a year. The present GI Bill program costs $2.2 billion a year.

Republicans last week, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and with Sen. John McCain of Arizona on board, revealed a plan to enhance the existing Montgomery GI Bill. The Republican proposal is aimed at keeping people in the military, whereas the Webb proposal is aimed at veterans after they finish their military service.

The Pentagon is opposed to Webb's plan to sweeten the GI Bill. Military brass worry that better post-service benefits would lure men and women to leave the armed forces at a time when the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan make recruiting tough.

"The services believe that Senator Webb's bill will create an unnecessary strain on retention," said Lt. Col. Jonathan Withington, a Defense Department spokesman.

During the draft era, 90 percent of those ending their first term of service left the military, Withington said. "Now, half stay -- and their experience and maturity are critical to our contemporary military success."

Edward Humes is a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author of "Over Here: How the G.I. Bill Transformed the American Dream."

"The World War II veterans had the best deal by far," Humes said. "Each generation has gotten less generous about what they do for veterans."

With less than 1 percent of Americans serving in the military and bearing the burden of fighting the long wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Humes said, "ought we not give them enough to get through state universities?"

But in an effort to retain experienced and trained soldiers, Marines and airmen, the U.S. armed forces already provide tuition assistance -- up to $4,500 a year -- toward college degrees for service members "while they're serving, not just afterwards," said the Pentagon's Withington.

Last year, the military's popular tuition assistance program financed 805,000 enrollments among the 1.4 million service members, he said.

And, said Sen. Richard Burr, R-S.C., one of the sponsors of the Republicans' GI Bill amendments, "Our legislation increases the monthly benefit for active duty and reserve personnel, and greatly expands the education benefits available to service members.

"This legislation goes a long way in providing service members with the ability to attend college debt-free and improves one of the best recruiting and retention tools the armed forces have," Burr said.

The Republican proposal also allows service members to transfer their education benefits to members of their families, which is the Pentagon's highest priority for changes to the GI Bill, Withington said."Taking care of veterans is a cost of war," said Paul Rieckhoff, founder of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, who served as an Army infantry officer in Iraq.

The Pentagon doesn't want to create a veterans education program that works against its efforts to keep good soldiers, Marines, airmen and sailors in the all-volunteer force.

Twenty-five Republican sen­ ators broke rank with President Bush to help Democrats approve overwhelm­ingly a new, more generous GI Bill plan negotiated by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., for active-duty service members, reservists and veterans who have served since the attacks of 9/11.

Senate leadership virtually ignored an alternative backed by the Bush administration and sweetened a day earlier by prominent Republicans who support the war in Iraq. Their bill, S. 2938, would have en­hanced the current Montgom­ery GI Bill education benefit sharply in the hope of winning the support of more veterans groups and blocking Webb's package.

The surprise 75-22 vote for the Webb plan included more than half of all Senate Republi­cans plus 48 Democrats and two independents. President Bush has promised to veto the bill but an override looks possible in both the Senate and House, which passed the Webb bill in mid-May.

Republican Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, John McCain of Arizona, and Richard Burr of North Carolina, agreed with Defense officials that the Webb plan would entice too many service members to leave after completing their initial service obligations, driving down force retention rates in wartime.

But most veterans groups stood by the Webb plan because it would pay full tuition and fees at the most-expensive state schools, provide a new monthly stipend tied to local housing costs, and would give Reserve and Guard members who have served lengthy deployments since 9/11 access to the same GI Bill benefits. The chairmen of the armed services and the vet­erans' affairs committees, Sens. Carl Levin, D-Mich., and Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, co-sponsored the Warner amendment.

The Graham alternative sought to enhance existing Montgomery GI Bill benefits rather than establish a new GI Bill for post-9/11 veterans. Gra­ham's key feature was to give the services authority to allow transfer of up to 18 months of unused education benefits to spouses or children if members serve at least six years. Both monthly payments and the transferability feature would be enhanced for continued service beyond 12 years.

The next day, Graham and Burr unveiled more ambitious changes to their own bill. Gra­ham suddenly wanted to drop the $1,200 MGIB enrollment fee and to adjust benefits each year based on rising education costs rather than inflation overall. Also, a $500 annual stipend for books would be raised to $1,000.

"Well, you know, I'll call this the Webb GI Bill," Graham said of his revised legislation. "I ap­preciate what he's done by put­ting the idea on the table of mod­ernizing benefits." But Webb's bill, he said, remains "a $52 bil­lion package that incentivizes people to leave the military at a time when we need to put money on the table to keep them around."

     On the surface of things, GOP Presidential candidate John McCain, at odds with Democrat contender Barack Obama, seems heartless for not endorsing Senator Jim Webb's legislation that will give generous college education benefits to Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. John McCain calls the Obama endorsement of this legislation, "political expediency". The bottom line, as I see it, is the fact that America currently has an all volunteer military at a time when America is engaged in two occupations and wars. Since there is no military draft, retention of military personnel is of paramount importance. John McCain along with the Pentagon, do want  to increase educational benefits for military men and women but in such a way that encourages them to stay in this all volunteer American military. Most Americans do not want to return to a military draft. In my opinion, John McCain is thinking like the Commander In Chief of America's armed forces. Barack Obama is thinking like a politician that wants to get elected President. ( I notice, at the moment, Senator Hillary Clinton is real quiet on this issue. Hopefully she will make a stand soon)

tags: john mccain  barack obama  iraq  afghanistan  war  warpeace  gi bill  takebackamerica  politics  2008  america  us  president  jim webb  republicans  democrats  

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