The GI Bill for the 21st Century was delayed again this week, and for a change, it's not McCain who's holding up its passage (though I'll get to him in a moment). It's actually the so-called Blue Dog Democrats, 47 fiscally conservative Democrats in the House who have voted for Bush's war time and time again. House Democratic leaders attached the GI Bill to an emergency war spending bill, thinking Bush wouldn't be able to veto it, but now they must figure out ways to offset the costs of the GI Bill if they want to appease the Blue Dogs.
This is truly despicable, considering the Blue Dogs have favored hundreds of billions in Bush's supplemental costs for the Iraq War, not to mention the billions more that have gone to private contractors. Daily Kos has more, including contact info for you to hound your Blue Dog representatives.
Of course, this news comes on the heels of a report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which found that McCain is, in fact, "full of it" on the GI Bill (told ya I'd get to him). McCain's excuse for not co-sponsoring Jim Webb's bi-partisan legislation in the Senate has been that it would cause a loss of retention because too many members of the military would use the GI Bill as an excuse to leave. Not so, says the CBO, which found that any loss in retention would be balanced by an increase in military recruits looking to take advantage of the new GI Bill educational benefits.
McCain has been completely hypocritical on supporting our vets, and he MUST be held accountable now because it would send a strong message to the Blue Dogs to get on board.
Roxie you are mistaken, and Heller the Blue Dogs are for the substance of the bill. Here is the reality and these are facts not conjecture.
At the start of this Congress, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said that all bills would be paid for. She promised that they would either be revenue-neutral or create a new revenue source to offset new costs.
The Blue Dogs voted against the bill because Democratic leaders didn't find a way to pay for it. The G.I. Bill portion alone would cost $720 million the first year and more as time went by.
If Pelosi finds a way to pay for it, they would support it. So please don't come up with fabricated reasons that have nothing whatsover to do with the reality of the situation.