Tuition bill for war vets wilts
The likely cost of Sen. Webb's veteran education plan made it hard to attract bipartisan support.
BY DAVID LERMAN 202-824-8224
June 17, 2007 WASHINGTON -- While running for Virginia senator last fall, Jim Webb offered voters a tantalizing prize: a free college education for most military veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The proposal, which married Webb's themes of military service and economic fairness, would give veterans with at least two years of active-duty service full tuition, room and board and a monthly $1,000 stipend.
As promised, Sen. Webb made the measure the first piece of legislation he introduced as a freshman Democratic senator in January. But five months later, prospects for passage this year of the "Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act" appear to be fading fast. The Bush administration declared its opposition to the bill, warning it would cost tens of billions of dollars and prove cumbersome to administer.
And while the measure wins praise from veterans groups, it has failed to attract the broad bipartisan support that typically would be required to push costly and ambitious programs through Congress on the eve of a presidential election year. Of the measure's 17 co-sponsors in the Senate, none is Republican.Last week, Webb acknowledged he had yet to discuss the bill with his senior Virginia colleague, Republican Sen. John W. Warner, a seasoned Senate hand known for brokering bipartisan agreements."
I would hope Senator Warner would support this," Webb told a reporter. "Maybe you could be so kind as to ask him on my behalf." Warner, in a later interview, did not take a firm position on the bill. But he declined to embrace the proposal, saying, "I think the cost of it is quite heavy."
Paying for the bill's college benefits would cost taxpayers $5.4 billion next year and nearly $75 billion over the next 10 years, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs. That estimate does not include what the department warns would be "significant administrative costs" that have yet to be quantified." The complexity of eligibility rules, anticipated cost, and administrative burden associated with this bill are all problematic," said Daniel Cooper, the VA's undersecretary for benefits, in written congressional testimony submitted last month.
Webb said the administration's cost estimates may be excessive. He said he requested a cost analysis from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office in January, but the CBO has yet to issue one. Whatever the cost, Webb argued, the bill should be seen as a matter of economic fairness to military service members, who have disrupted their lives and careers to serve in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The measure is designed to give the same kind of access to college that was available to veterans returning home from World War II. "This should be included in the cost of war," said Webb, a decorated Vietnam veteran whose son recently returned home from Iraq. "We owe everyone who has given us good service the opportunity to reach the height they can with the skill sets they have. "Hoping to drum up support for the bill last week, Webb held a news conference to announce that his bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives.
Virginia Rep. Robert C. "Bobby" Scott, D-Newport News, will serve as a chief House sponsor of the measure. "When you talk about supporting the troops, that commitment should not end when they return home," Scott said at the news conference, which drew a handful of Democratic lawmakers and a number of veterans groups. Under existing law, veterans are offered some financial assistance with college through the Montgomery G.I. Bill, which provides up to about $9,000 for each academic year. But as supporters of Webb's legislation are quick to point out, it is virtually impossible to find a college that charges as little as $9,000 a year.
"It's quite a financial endeavor," said Eric Hilleman, a deputy director of the Veterans of Foreign Wars who said the Montgomery G.I. Bill offered him only $550 a month for college. While such assistance might have been appropriate in peacetime, Webb argued, veterans deserve full college benefits in a time of war. "This is an earned benefit," he said. "These people have stepped forward and put their lives on the line."
An interesting bit of information I thought I could share to any who might be interested to read. Shrub talks about supporting us in the military but would deny a college education, or an opportunity to recieve a better deal for our education when service members return from an illegal war that's costing upwards of $80 BILLION dollars a year.
If not shocking enough, a total of $10 billion went missing beginning from 2005 to today, while the Iraqi government is missing $500 million. Al Maliki states that money that was supposed to be transferred over came up short from what was promised. Just remember who, over there, is handling the money: Exxon/Mobil, BP, Haliburton, and KBR and an assortment of shrubco-picked contractors.
Never mind that ultimate sacrifices have been made in the name of oil, or that many of my fellow service members are coming home wounded or disfigured or missing limbs, the monkey in the "hero" flightsuit might as well tell us that, "Yes, I support you for fightin' my war, and that's all yer gonna git!" As far as purported support from other republicans who are distancing and themselves from this administration, now is their chance to save what little face they have and support this tuition bill for war vets.
Maybe shrub is still upset (or drunk again) that his bought and paid for C- average is still haunting him, he doesn't want anyone else to succeed where he has failed, over and over again.
It wouldn't hurt for our fresh new Democratic House and Senate to grow a backbone either.
In case you're wondering, I, GunnerGMM, wrote the prior Bush's Neighborhood episode as well as this one. Thank you for your support.
Stay tuned for another trip through "the neighborhood"
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