Will McCain, Cornyn Support Our Troops This Week?
It's crunch time. This week, the Senate is expected to take up the 21st Century GI Bill, offered by Senators Jim Webb and Chuck Hagel, after the measure passed the House last week. And, VoteVets.org is right there to keep the pressure on, with a 36-hour ad blitz on the bill.
For the next day and a half, no one in Washington DC will be able to turn on their TV without seeing an ad on the GI Bill that challenges Senator John McCain to back the Webb-Hagel bill. As you know, Senator McCain has his own watered-down measure that only gives a fraction of the costs of college to veterans. As our veterans say in the ad, "We didn't give a fraction in Iraq, we gave 100 percent."
Meanwhile, in key markets in Texas, we challenge Senator John Cornyn to back the Webb-Hagel bill. Senator Cornyn is one of the few Senators representing a large veterans population who has not signed onto the Webb-Hagel Bill.
Why's this bill so important? Let me put it in some personal perspective. One of our veterans in Texas, Alex Horton, is soon going to be using his GI Bill benefits. Those benefits will either cover college for him, or they won't. Here's how Alex puts it:
" As an Iraq War veteran, I'll be attending school in the fall under one G.I. Bill or another. My future has two paths: one is riddled with tuition debt and juggling a full time job with school, and the other is a path paved by benefits earned by my service to this country. Veteran students should not have to make a decision between food and school, and if Senators McCain and Cornyn make the right decision to support this bill, we won't have to."
These benefits are not a hand-out, as some on the other side seem to be implying. The GI Bill of Rights, signed into law by Franklin Roosevelt, promised those who served our nation full education benefits, to allow them the chance to reach for the American dream. Those veterans need to get into schools on their own merits, and need to study and work hard to make their grades. No one can do that for them. But, for their service, for generations, we've made the sacred promise to honor their service with full education benefits.
The Webb-Hagel bill is the ONLY measure that restores that promise, and updates the GI Bill to keep up with the rising cost of education. That's why every single major veterans group supports it. And that's why VoteVets.org, today, is putting on a full-court press.
Here are the ads. Please take a moment to visit VoteVets.org, as well, to support our work.
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John,
Have you read the bill? It only applies to service members who have served post Sept. 11, 2001.
As someone who served both before and after Sept. 11, 2001, I find that insulting. Was my service before less valuable? Less respected? According to this bill, yes. What a bunch of crap.
If I remember correctly, the Veterans Administration wanted the diagnosis of
TBI tramatic brain injury, not to be used so much as a diagnosis, because another
term on the paperwork would require less expense. The idea that giving Vets a
chance to go to school after service, and proper healthcare, seems to be such
basic services to me. How can the Bush Administration and the Veterans
Administration expect military to serve 3-4 tours, come home wounded and disappear
into the wood work? Something very wrong there.
I think you're drawing a false distinction.
The system, especailly the VA has problems, but there are no silver bullets. And it's all got to work within the frameworks and budgets that already exist. Especially since no one seems to be interested in building new frameworks.
Not a false distinction at all. The GOP has wrapped itself in the military, pretending to be their protectors against the evil democrats who hate them. Then the GOP gets in total control of the government. To fund their tax breaks they cut veterans benifits, increase co-pays for medicine at VA hospitals, and decide it would be a heck of a lot cheaper if the doctors failed to diognose PTSD so the veteran can't get care, which costs money. They decide that the active military really don't need a pay raise but the oil and energy companies do. The republicans are funding their corruption on the backs of the military men and women.
The democrats get in, they vote for a pay raise, Bushie vetos. The democrats and some few republicans vote for a GI bill Bushie vetos and McCain is on his side. The dems are attempting to build a better framework but Bushie has his veto pen ready and the GOP will upholding him in shafting the wounded and injured.
The VA works within the frameworks of not providing good care to the injured and disabled vet. The VA operates under the framework of "how little can we spend on the people we sent to war and still get away with it.
The Repug neocons don’t do veteran’s services. They just start wars under false pretenses and then shirk any responsibility for the aftermath of their treachery. From not equipping our soldiers properly to ignoring them upon return, the callous apathy of the Bush administration and its enablers in Congress toward our troops is criminal. If John McCain refuses to support the 21st century GI bill, he looses his last shred of credibility.
So what's wrong with the Enhancement of Recruitment, Retention, and Readjustment Through Education Act?
This act focuses on Recruitment and Retention while the Webb-Hagel act looks out for the long-term viability of our vets. If it's better recruitment and longer retention that Cornyn and McCain want they should think twice about utilizing war as the diplomatic answer against every government that disagrees with the US. I don't think that the Iraq war has been a great tool for retention and recruitment for our Armed Services, especially when you consider that the Army and Marine Corp have had to lower their standards in the types of recruits they are accepting. Especially demoralizing is the private contractors in Iraq that are doing less than our GIs but are earning ten times more.
Cornyn, the son of a retired USAF Colonel, is a Vietnam draft evader. I wonder who went to fight and die in his place and Georgie and Dickie's places, too. None of the three has the common sense or the empathy of a fence post. If there was ever evidence of the need for a draft, those three are it. And if you do not agree with them on everything you are unpatriotic. They'll look good in prison some day.
Do we really get to call anyone who had a deferment an "evader?"
Maybe not in all cases. But if they had five deferments (Cheney) or used family connections to wangle a safe berth in the National Guard and stay out of Vietnam (Bush) or got disqualified because of a pimple on their ass (Limbaugh) -- HELL YES!
No. Let's call him what he is. A DRAFT DODGER.
Well if they were really the "Patriot" they claim to be they would have dropped everything to serve their country. Look at Pat Tillman, he walked away from a pro-football contract to join the Army (it is unfortunate the circumstances that surround his death) because of his patriotic convictions.
So I call it how I see it, he's a draft dodger and on top of it a hypocrite.
My late father was a WWII veteran. When he returned from the war, thanks to the GI Bill, he was able to finish his education, which had been put on hold, to enlist. Many men at the time dropped out of school to serve. They could resume their education after the war and most did. They worked during the day and attended high school or college at night. When my father married my mother they were able to purchase an affordable, low interest home thanks to the GI Bill. Just about every neighbor on our street in the brand new suburban neighborhood were WWII vets. This era was the beginning of a huge middle class in America, after years and years of the Great Depression. Of course the President at the time was FDR. Now we are stuck with a bunch of calloused incompetent crooks.
No, you are incorrect. As crooks they are quite competent.
My late father was a WWII veteran. When he returned from the war, thanks to the GI Bill, he was able to finish his education, which had been put on hold, to enlist. Many men at the time dropped out of school to serve. They could resume their education after the war and most did. They worked during the day and attended high school or college at night. When my father married my mother they were able to purchase an affordable, low interest home thanks to the GI Bill. Just about every neighbor on our street in the brand new suburban neighborhood were WWII vets. This era was the beginning of a huge middle class in America, after years and years of the Great Depression. Of course the President at the time was FDA. Now we are stuck with a bunch of calloused incompetent crooks.
And not one of them could take advantage of the benefits until after the war was over because that's how mobilization was structured (duration +6 months).
It's not the proposed benefit that's the problem. It's how it's proposed to be administered.
If Iraq vets have to wait until Bush's War is over to get benefits, they'll die of old age first.
But WW2 was a war against a defined enemy. Bushies occupation game has no end.
We have been in Iraq for longer than WW2 with less to show for it than any war except maybe Vietnam. The soldiers have done their best, their officers have tried mightily the Highest echelons and the political leadership have been utterly incompetent. The US took a functioning country with no ties to terrorists and turned it into a seething civil war infested with religious warfare, tribal warfare and US corruption and incompetence The terrorists we have invited in are just additional ingredients in the disaster.. Bushie and McCain want to extend this blessing to other countries in the mid east. With stop loss provisions enrolling for 2 years in the military can turn into a lifetime spent in the service of the oil companies.
if Bushie is planning a new sort of war with McCain planning to continue and expand it then the GIs need a new kind of benefit, one which is useful in todays world.
My VA educational benefits paid for a chunk of my college, and I support increasing them for today's vets. I don't support Congress not paying for the new GI bill. Take a chunk out of that dog of a Farm Bill to pay for this program, or find the funds somewhere else, but pay for it.
As a Texan I am also ashamed of Senator Cornyn for his obvious unbridled contempt for our military. Senator Cornyn is a typical right wing war hawk who did everything he could do avoid serving in Vietnam. And yet he has no problem in sending others off to fight his, McCain's and W.'s bloody and immoral war.
Senator Cornyn, like McCain, is a clone of W.
On Meet the Press on Sunday Senator Webb said that although the GI bill has huge bi-partisan support, W. plans to veto the bill. This will be the first time in our history, according to Webb, that a President will veto benefits for those who have served. This is criminally appalling. And Cornyn is joined at the hip with the first President in U.S. history who will deny veteran's their justly deserved benefits.
Thank God we have choices this year. We will fire Cornyn in Texas and elect Rick Noriega, a real hero who has served his country. He did not run. He did not hide. And let us replace W. with Obama, please.
No more right wing war hawks who shirked their own responsibilities in this regard. No more members of Congress who have enabled W. for eight long and dark years. Enough is enough.
It's the Patriot Trap. Politicians dare not vote for benefits for Veterans. But it's not always a good thing.
This bill will hurt more tahn it will help and is designed to limit the Presidnet and the military in its range of strategy. In particular this is designed to prevent another "Surge."
In addition, we've over promised to Veternas before. Look up the Bonus March and recall that unpaid Soldiers ran Congress out of Philadelphia in 1782.
I'm having a bad day. That should be: "Politicians dare not vote against benefits for Veterans."
duh
how can we "over promise" after what 1 million + of them have been through?
please, putting a price on it at this point is like.... well I won't say it because you are probably a vet yourself and that wouldn't be right.
Oh so Bush and McCain are not setting a "Patriot Trap" when they say if you don't vote for the Patriotic Act or if you don't vote for the continued "war on terror" in the Mideast you are endangering America? You can't have it both ways - typical Republican.
If you want those guys to support the bill tell them it's a bill to pay Blackwater more money. . . it's pathetic that the Republicans worry that Obama doesn't wear a flag pin and some of them refuse to support the troops they continue to use in their war propaganda -- if anyone saw the report on 60 Minutes about how government is also turning its back on the Iraqis who have risked their lives to help our cause then you get a sense of how hypocritical Bush and his supporters are. Thank you for this post - will forward to everyone I know to write their Senators.
funny thing, war criminals and enablers calling Obama unpatriotic. not so funny, a good percentage of Americans lapping that crap up. it's all about money and manipulated hatred. McCain would be ashamed if he had any pride left.
This is where the rubber meets the road. For decades the GOP has enjoyed the reputation of being the party of the military whereas, the Democrats don't support the troops. The vast majority of active duty and retired military personnel have been one of the most loyal and reliable GOP voting blocs. Now, the GOP is about to throw GIs under the bus by denying them what is rightfully theirs - adequate medical care and an affordable college education. After all we have put them through, the soldiers, sailors, and Marines should get even more. If the McCains, Cornyns, Kyls, McConnells, and Chambliss's of the GOP do not deliver on the 21st century GI Bill, they will have lost more than a generation of military support.
This is where the rubber meets the road. For decades I have been reminded that the GOP is the party of the military whereas, the Democrats don't support the troops. The vast majority of active duty and retired military personnel have been one of the most loyal and reliable GOP voting blocs. Now, the GOP is about to throw GIs under the bus by denying them what is rightfully theirs - adequate medical care and an affordable college education. After all we have put them through, the soldiers, sailors, and Marines should get even more. If the McCains, Cornyns, Kyls, McConnells, and Chambliss's of the GOP do not deliver on the 21st century GI Bill, they will have lost more than a generation of military support.
Will McCain, Cornyn Support Our Troops This Week?
NO, they will not support the soldiers or the veterans.
As my spouse says they're 1 way SOB's
Why does SEN Webb oppose transferability of education benefits from servicemembers to their family?
Actually he doesn't. It just isn't addressed in this bill.
If we get a decent majority in the house, senate and a democratic president then the GIs will get back all the benefits that George and the GOP stole from them plus a decent GI bill as well.
Actually he does or it'd be in there.
I did find one article that refers to allowing "certain officers" to transfer benefits. Great.
What benefits have been stolen?
We need two BIG votes here....vo
gee, a texas republican is a two-faced chickenhawk corporate shill who could give a damn about our brave soldiers.
where have I heard THAT before
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