The Democratically controlled Congress has proposed a bill to increase GI Bill benefits for veterans. This is, on the face, a good thing.
President Bush has threatened to veto the bill, and my Congressman (Mike McCaul, R–TX10) and Senator (John Cornyn, R–TX) both voted against its passage.
Democrats and the Left-o-sphere are spinning the veto and votes against as Republicans not wanting to increase benefits. Some are being even more dishonest than that and are trying to spin it as though Republicans are trying to repeal the entire GI Bill by not funding it at all.
But the truth is that the GOP has proposed their own increase and expansion of GI and educational benefits for Veterans. Except — unlike the Donk’s bill — the GOP actually listened to what Soldiers and veterans most wanted to see in an expanded GI Bill. And they talked to the head of the VA — who said that the Donk’s version of the bill would not be the best way to help veterans.
The number one thing that Soldiers and Veterans want (and have always wanted) in the GI Bill is transferability.
And the GOP pushed to make sure that veterans would be allowed to transfer part or all of their GI Bill benefit to their spouse and/or children.
But the Donks were having none of it and refused to include it.
The truth is, that the current amounts provided by the GI Bill are in almost all cases more than enough to pay for for a full degree at almost any public university in America.
Michelle Malkin has the NY Times column, which spins and lies about the GOP’s role in increasing GI Bill benefits. She also has the White House response.
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I called my brother, who is the NCOIC in charge of all instructors at the US Army Recruiting School in Ft. Jackson, SC, to talk to him about his thoughts on this.
He agreed that the number one thing that Soldiers want — especially ones that have been in long enough to have re-enlisted — is the ability to transfer their benefit to their spouse or children.
Case in point — my brother will retire from the US Army in 2011. He will already have a Bachelor’s degree, which was paid for via the U.S. Army’s Tuition Assistance Program (TAP). The TAP provides up to $4500 per year in tuition assistance to any active duty soldier.
So, when he retires at the ripe “old age” of 39-years old, he’ll have a Bachelors degree in Business Administration and Finance, and 20-years of exceptional real-world experience.
He’ll start into his next career immediately and the chance of him using his GI Bill within the 10-year expiration period are slim-to-none.
His wife, on the other hand, is currently paying for a college class here-and-there, trying to earn a degree in Education so she can become a school teacher once my brother retires from the Army.
The military does not provide any assistance to her at all.
It would be a tremendous benefit if his GI Bill benefits were transferable to his wife. But they’re not.
And they should be.
Because part of the GI Bill is funded by the Soldiers themselves. When you join the Army, if you want the GI Bill, you have to explicitly sign-up for it. And then the Army deducts $100/month from your check for the first year of your enlistment.
$100/month might not sound like much. But I was just looking at an old LES from when I was an E-3 in the Army. And my monthly take home pay was $635.
A month.
That extra $100/month was huge back then.
Which leads me to the second thing that Soldiers would like to change about the GI Bill: quit making Soldiers pay for it. It should be a benefit that is 100% free to all Soldiers the moment they are sworn in.
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So when you hear Dems, Lefty-bloggers, and media pundits saying that the GOP doesn’t want to increase the GI Bill benefits, understand that they are lying.
The difference between the GI Bill bills being proposed by each side is this: the GOP bill is based on the feedback of Soldiers and the VA itself. The Donks bill is based on their own political posturing and does not best address the needs of todays soldiers and tomorrows veterans.
Those of us who entered the service prior to (IIRC) 1986 had a free GI bill, so it’s not a radical idea.
When I retired in 1994 I went to one semester of graduate school (which I hated) and then went into the private sector. When the ten year clock ran out in 2004 I had something like 30 months of unused GI bill, and two kids in college. It would have been great to pass some of that GI bill to my kids.
Left by Jim Howard on May 28th, 2008 at 12:12 am