McCain Says Troops Need ‘Significant Educational Benefits,’ But Still Won’t Sign Onto New GI Bill
McCain Says Troops Need ‘Significant Educational Benefits,’ But Still Won’t Sign Onto New GI Bill
On ABC’s The View this morning, Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was asked about the great strain placed on U.S. troops due to the Iraq war. McCain recognized the strain and said that in order to motivate Americans to join the military, the government should provide stronger “educational benefits”:
There a certain number who will join out of patriotism, thank God. And then there’s those who turn 18 or 19 or 20 or 21, and they look at their options. And one of the thing we ought to do is provide them significant educational benefits in return for serving. Americans will always serve their country. Americans will, if they’re motivated to do so.
Watch it:
McCain’s support of “significant educational benefits” is ironic, considering that he is still “hedging on whether he will support a ‘GI Bill for the 21st Century,’” as Jon Soltz and Gen. Wesley Clark note in today’s LA Times. That bill, sponsored by Sens. Jim Webb (D-VA) and Chuck Hagel (R-NE), would help fund higher education for service members who had served in active duty since 9/11.
“As de facto leader of the party, McCain could signal to other Republicans to sign on to the bill and assure passage,” Soltz and Clark note. VoteVets and BraveNewFilms has released a video on the new GI Bill and McCain. Watch it:
On the View, McCain said, “that’s what I believe I can do as President,” referring to implementing the benefits for troops. Curiously, he won’t do it now.
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34 Responses to “McCain Says Troops Need ‘Significant Educational Benefits,’ But Still Won’t Sign Onto New GI Bill”
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why does a vet hate the troops?
April 10th, 2008 at 3:18 pmMc100yearwar needs significant medication to treat his dementia and delusions.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:21 pmRepublicans and their Democratic counterparts, the Republicrats, have been stealing from the public for so long, shifting wealth ever upward for so long, that there’s no way he’s going to vote for this.
I mean, there’s just no money in it for him.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:23 pmMcMaverick has been instructed that Halliburton and Lockheed, et al don’t want GI Bill money coming out of “their” revenue stream. As far as those companies and the elite Righty establishment are concerned, the DoD budget belongs to them, not those soldiers and not the American public.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:29 pmIs there something in the bill McCain doesn’t like, and if so, what is it?
April 10th, 2008 at 3:29 pmWho is screening my comments?
April 10th, 2008 at 3:39 pmYes, he doesn’t like that it benefits our Vets.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:41 pmIf McStain doesn’t sign onto the bill, he does not support the troops. How difficult is that to understand? I believe the administration thinks that too many will take advantage of the new opportunity and leave the service. Then, who is going to fight the glorious war of the ’serious’ people who live in the village? Maybe I am starting to feel a ‘draft’ coming on. Can anybody ask that question of the right side candidate?
April 10th, 2008 at 3:42 pmThere is another link and some more detail on the GI Bill here.
The Pentagon and White House are afraid that vets will leave the service if they have the opportunity to go to college. That’s known as “supporting the troops.”
April 10th, 2008 at 3:43 pmMcCain’s ‘GI Bill’ was wealthy woman.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:48 pmA significant proportion of soldiers will probably be headed for divorce by the time they are done with their service.
The economy is doing “great” I hear, so there should be plenty of meal tickets around for veterans to snag.
They just need to show a little gumption!
That nassy old hypocrite sold his soul to the Devil - and I hope Old Scratch shows up to collect it - soon.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:48 pmAnother knuckle-dragging loser is nominated to run for President. What a sad little country we have become.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:49 pmI used the GI Bill to obtain two undergraduate degrees. But, in 1994, the $400/month provided by the bill merely helped pay the rent. I had to work and take out loans to pay for school and survive. The GI Bill has needed a revision for a long time.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:51 pmWho says anyone will get out of the military in any condition to receive their benefits? Don’t these kids know they have enlisted for the duration?
“Stop loss”. It’s not an extension, it’s a life sentence.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:52 pm“Yeah, I’ll ’support’ the troops, as long as I can be the one to use the bill as a photo-op”.
–John McLoserTraitor,
Heir to the title of COXUCKER punk TRAITOR when Bush goes to Paraguay to escape prosecution as a WAR CRIMINAL.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:54 pmCorrect me if I’m wrong, but isn’t McCain a co-sponsor of this bill? WTF?
April 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pmEducation=a future beyond the army. The whole point is to make staying in the army the only future today’s soldiers have. Why give soldiers an incentive to get out since we need to be able to keep rotating them back to Iraq. Truly siick what they have done to our armed services.
April 10th, 2008 at 3:58 pmOne thing about this bill that I find ironic is that the Pentagon opposes the bill. They oppose it because they are worried that having a real GI bill will affect their retention rates of soldiers re-upping. They fear that if they know they can go to college when they complete their first tour of duty, they won’t re-up. The irony about it is that there won’t be any soldiers to re-up unless they can start attracting people to join the military. I think their recruitment problems are the biggest problem right now. Besides, the repeated deployments have already seriously affected the number of soldiers who agree to re-up. Most are getting out as soon as they can and fewer and fewer are becoming officers and looking at the military as a career.
Perhaps what the Pentagon should be proposing is to allow active military to use the educational benefits. That way the soldiers could get an education and stay in the military.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:08 pmZooey Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t McCain a co-sponsor of this bill? WTF?
__________________________________
Yes, he IS a co-sponsor of the bill, but that was before he sold his soul to the right wing. I figure that either he hasn’t yet received his marching orders on what position he’s supposed to take, or he’s trying to figure out how he can flip-flop on something he actually co-sponsored without insulting everybody’s intelligence.
And what’s truly hilarious about this is that it’s basically a no-brainer. It has bipartisan support, and it’s needed as an recruiting incentive (and unless the draft is reinstated, we either need to recruit more people or quit invading other countries). McCain isn’t going to lose enough votes by supporting this to matter.
The only reason the opposition can give is that if you give soldiers money to go to school, they’ll want to quit at the end of their enlistment and go to school. Fine. If this is McCain’s position, why can’t he just say so?
If he can’t take a stand on something this simple, how does he figure he’s going to function as President?
April 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pmZooey Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t McCain a co-sponsor of this bill? WTF?
Nope. McPander Bear is waffling. I think he’s too busy; what with spending his days talking out of both sides of his mouth, supporting the surge, declaring victory, and all. Whatever the reason he has failed to sign on to the Webb, Hagel bill.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:10 pmThe View Ladies need to do that thing where one of them pushes McCain over another one on all fours, behind him.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:12 pmZooey Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t McCain a co-sponsor of this bill? WTF?
You’re wrong. Co-sponsor is Chuck Hagel (R). You should try this new blog: TheZoo. There’s a post there on the subject.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:12 pmKarl Rove on education:
“You can have too much of a good thing”
April 10th, 2008 at 4:15 pmgummitch Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Zooey Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t McCain a co-sponsor of this bill? WTF?
You’re wrong. Co-sponsor is Chuck Hagel (R). You should try this new blog: TheZoo. There’s a post there on the subject.
**raspberry**
I just read it. Good one.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:17 pmI am surprised to hear McCain justify the GI Bill as nothing more than a recruiting tool. WWII and Vietnam were wars conducted with a draft. The original GI Bill was not a recruiting tool. It was a gift from a grateful nation for the personal sacrifice and service during a time of war. Not only did the GI Bill benefit individual servicemen for college and other technical schools, but it also prepared us as a nation to compete technologically with the Russians and to usher in a robust economy that could fully compete with all other comers and rebuild a Europe and Asia after WWII.
You can often see the soul of a man or a political party through their actions on an issue like this. We have been at war for five years. Thousands dead and tens of thousands injured. Yet, McCain can only justify his support or nonsupport of the measure as a means to entice our youth into joining for the war. A true patriot sees it as a debt paid to those who sacrificed. You do not need to consider whether similar benefits as given to those after WWII should be given to a war the McCain believes to be on the same level
April 10th, 2008 at 4:20 pmSen. John McCain (R-AZ) says: I don’t believe in funding anything that does not benefit the Congression Industrial Military Complex. Money for War is good, money for Warriors is bad.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:33 pmAny University that has granted this two faced jackass an honorary degree should revoke it. The man has no honor.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:40 pmI’m almost surprised Whoopie didn’t up and smack his smarmy ass upside the head.
April 10th, 2008 at 4:43 pmRe #28: I agree, they all should have shouted questions at and demanded answers of the dummy. Instead they weren’t prepared, so they just gave him a pass as usual.
April 10th, 2008 at 5:06 pmHo Hum
He, like Bush, thinks they should have been born to privilege like he was or else they don’t deserve it. Annapolis legacy / Yale legacy, all arrogance.
April 10th, 2008 at 6:05 pm> Is there something in the bill McCain doesn’t
> like, and if so, what is it?
The same group of nutty right wing bloggers who badgered mccain for correcting himself about the non-existent links between iran and al-queeder will eat him alive and probably start shopping for fertilizer if he involves himself in anything involving democrats..
April 10th, 2008 at 6:43 pm#28 RUCerious Says:
April 10th, 2008 at 4:43 pm
I’m almost surprised Whoopie didn’t up and smack his smarmy ass upside the head.
Absolutely, I can’t believe as outspoken as Whoopie is that she didn’t get in his face. I’m very surprised by that. She had the perfect opportunity too..
April 10th, 2008 at 7:12 pmYou can almost see that aura of arrogance that today’s Republicans can’t seem to keep from emitting. We don’t need more for our soldiers as there will always be those “18, 20, 21 year olds who will look at their options”, or perhaps be willing to die in the rich man’s war(s) for a chance of breaking their poverty chains.
April 10th, 2008 at 8:41 pm.
John McCan Kicker already got his GI benefits, why start caring now?
.
April 11th, 2008 at 1:05 am