Posts with the tag G.I. Bill
With the holiday fast approaching, please take a moment to check out the thoughtful column by Tracy Dingmann over at the New Mexico Independent... Dissent is Patriotic
Major General Mel Montaņo of Albuquerque has a stinging critique in today's Las Cruces Sun News. In the piece, Montaņo takes President George Bush, Senator John McCain, Congressman Steve Pearce and Congresswoman Heather Wilson to task for refusing to support Senator Jim Webb's (D-VA) GI Bill.
The flagship provision of the bill is to provide full college scholarships for veterans that served in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The bill's annual price tag is estimated at $3-$4 billion-a paltry sum to help our returning service men and women. We spend more in Iraq on any given week.
By opposing this common sense initiative, we have to ask President Bush, Senator McCain, Congressman Pearce and Congresswoman Wilson where their priorities lie.
The flagship provision of the bill is to provide full college scholarships for veterans that served in either Afghanistan or Iraq. The bill's annual price tag is estimated at $3-$4 billion-a paltry sum to help our returning service men and women. We spend more in Iraq on any given week.
By opposing this common sense initiative, we have to ask President Bush, Senator McCain, Congressman Pearce and Congresswoman Wilson where their priorities lie.
Yes, it was a big government program about which former Senator Bob Dole spoke in these glowing terms: "It changed America; it may have changed the world."
Passed in 1944, the G.I. Bill of Rights made available to sixteen million veterans of World War II, like Dole, generous educational opportunities and home ownership. It helped build the American middle class that drove the post-war economic boom of the 1950s.
In a recent NY Times op ed ("Doing the Troops Wrong"), Bob Herbert wrote:
Herbert goes on to say that "reinvigorating the G.I. bill is one of the best things this nation could do."
That's why a new GI Bill -- Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act -- has been introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. In the Senate, Vietnam veteran Jim Webb (D-VA) has been leading the charge along co-sponsors Chuck Hagel (R-NE), another Vietnam vet, and John Warner (R-VA), a former Navy Secretary.
A version of the bill has also been introduced in the House and New Mexico Congressman Tom Udall is an enthusiastic sponsor.
But the Bush Administration opposes the new G.I. bill. So does John McCain. Read More »
Passed in 1944, the G.I. Bill of Rights made available to sixteen million veterans of World War II, like Dole, generous educational opportunities and home ownership. It helped build the American middle class that drove the post-war economic boom of the 1950s.
In a recent NY Times op ed ("Doing the Troops Wrong"), Bob Herbert wrote:
The original G.I. Bill of Rights, signed into law by President Franklin Roosevelt in 1944, paid the full load of a returning veteran's education at a college or technical school and provided a monthly stipend. It was an investment that paid astounding dividends. Millions of veterans benefited, and they helped transform the nation. College would no longer be the exclusive preserve of the wealthy and those who crowned themselves the intellectual elite.
Herbert goes on to say that "reinvigorating the G.I. bill is one of the best things this nation could do."
That's why a new GI Bill -- Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act -- has been introduced by a bipartisan group of lawmakers. In the Senate, Vietnam veteran Jim Webb (D-VA) has been leading the charge along co-sponsors Chuck Hagel (R-NE), another Vietnam vet, and John Warner (R-VA), a former Navy Secretary.
A version of the bill has also been introduced in the House and New Mexico Congressman Tom Udall is an enthusiastic sponsor.
But the Bush Administration opposes the new G.I. bill. So does John McCain. Read More »
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