Earlier this month, House leaders struck a deal to push forward with Sen. Jim Webb’s (D-VA) GI Bill, which expanded generous educational benefits for veterans. The House deal also included a provision allowing troops to transfer the benefits to family members.
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) was one of the most vocal opponents of Webb’s bill, claiming it was too generous and would lead to a drop in military retention. Yet when the House deal was announced, McCain tried to take credit for it:
With the addition of the transferability provisions sought by Senators Graham, Burr, myself and others to give service members the right to transfer earned G.I. Bill benefits to spouses and children, we will have achieved in offering vastly improved educational benefit.
As if trying to steal credit for Webb’s GI Bill wasn’t bad enough, McCain yesterday skipped the Senate vote on the legislation, which passed 92-6. The only other senator not present for the vote was Ted Kennedy (D-MA), who is battling a brain tumor.
What was McCain doing instead yesterday? In addition to holding a town hall meeting at Xavier University in Cincinnati, he also took some time to chow down at Skyline Chili:
McCain has not voted in the Senate since April 8 and has missed 367 votes (61.4 percent) during the current Congress.
Update
Steve Benen asks, “What does McCain mean by ‘we’?”
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