“Support the Troops”: Finally Not Just Rhetoric

Pressured by countless telephone calls, tens of thousands petition signatures and letters to Capitol Hill, thousands of letters to the editor, and hundreds of columns and opinion pieces (hopefully one or two of mine included therein) a sufficient number of Republican Senators have joined their Democratic colleagues to overwhelmingly–I.e. “veto proof”–pass Senator Webb’s version of the 21st Century GI Bill.

In a strong show of true support for our troops, last night, 77 U.S. Senators voted in favor of the GI bill, including my home state Senator Cornyn, who finally saw the light and did the right thing. Twenty-one other Senators–all Republicans–voted “Nay,” including the “wide stance” Senator from Idaho.

There were only two Senators absent for this important vote. One was Ted Kennedy who is recovering from brain surgery. The other, Sen. John McCain, who has fought the Webb bill tooth and nail. McCain, President Bush and a few others at first claimed, in an unbelievably misplaced penny pinching mode, that the bill “would cost too much.“ When that didn’t fly, they postulated that the bill would hurt retention–a claim that was quickly countered by a Congressional Budget Office analysis that found any possible losses in retention caused by this bill would be balanced by the increases in recruitment it would generate.

As far as the president goes–the other opponent of the more fair and generous Webb bill–according to the Washington Post:

In a 92 to 6 vote, the Senate yesterday approved unrestricted funding for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that allows continuation of the current military course of action through the end of President Bush’s term and beyond. In exchange for that unencumbered freedom to operate in Iraq, Bush agreed to demands by congressional Democrats to create a new higher-education benefit for veterans and their families, and to extend unemployment benefits (Emphasis mine)

After initially fighting the education provisions of the GI Bill, because they would “cost too much,“ Bush (and McCain) demanded that the education benefit be transferable to spouses and children of veterans. Democrats complied and pushed the cost of the Webb bill to $62.8 billion over 11 years.

The improved Webb GI Bill now goes to the President, attached to the 2008 war supplemental. Let’s hope that, this time, the President will truly support our troops and promptly and unequivocally (no signing statements) will sign the bill.