The Republican presidential nominee -- that white-haired guy from Arizona, remember? -- has been taking a ton of heat in recent weeks on a particularly touchy issue: his failure to support the popular new version of the "GI Bill" that helped many young world war two veterans get a college education after leaving the military. (McCain is, famously, a decorated veteran of the Vietnam war.)
Well, McCain answered his critics today, releasing his own version of an updated GI Bill that falls short of the benefits in the original proposal that he has declined to support. While the first new GI Bill, sponsored by Democratic vice-presidential hopeful James Webb, would give veterans four years of state college, room and board included, McCain's plan would give active-duty soldiers $1,500 per month in education benefits and "significantly increased" aid to national guard members.
Will the new bill provide McCain political cover when veterans' groups put him on the spot during the general election? Not if Wesley Clark has anything to say about it.
Update: Webb and his co-authors on the first GI Bill, including McCain ally John Warner, show the Republican nominee the back of their hand.
The proponents of this newly-introduced legislation maintain that [our new GI Bill] is too generous to today's veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, is too difficult to administer, and would unduly harm the retention of our active duty military people. Each of these assertions is wrong.
