Webb's GI Bill Featured on The News Hour on PBS

To the naysayers who say the new GI Bill is too expensive and likely to affect retention Webb responded:

"They don't comprehend that if you put a benefit like this on the table you're going to broaden your recruitment base ..."

Of course, the point is that people who have been asked to devote years of their lives to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should receive the same benefits as those who fought WWII and Korea.

Today while I was at the local McDonald's catching up with my favorite gang of elderly retirees we got into a discussion of the GI Bill and what it meant for them.  A number of the men had benefited from the Bill themselves in the 40s and 50s and were all in favor extending it to our current crop of veterans.  One of the women described how difficult it was for her husband to finish his MBA at Harvard when he was wrongly denied the extended benefits of the GI Bill.  

We need to see this New GI Bill widely advertised and supported.  It's not a question of whether it will affect retention, but about whether it's the right thing to do for those who have put their all on the line for our country.

The report featured a particular young returned Reservist who would benefit from S.22 and spoke of the returning vets who feel compelled to use the Community College system because they cannot attend four year colleges on the present system of benefits.  

Okay, I'm a little less annoyed at Webb for his FISA vote today.  

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