A couple of weeks ago, John McCain talked about the importance of increasing the size of the U.S. military. To entice more volunteers, he said, the government should focus on incentives: “[O]ne of the things we ought to do is provide [the troops with] significant educational benefits in return for serving.”
A few days later, McCain announced that he opposes a bipartisan measure to renew and expand the GI Bill for a new generation of veterans. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), the leading proponent of the modernized GI Bill, called McCain out.
McCain’s argument is that if the government makes college more affordable for the troops, they might be inclined to leave the military, rather than re-enlist. Webb, who said McCain is “full of it,” has argued that a) the troops deserve better educational benefits; and b) it might help with military recruiting if people knew they could go to college after their service.
Who’s right? Faiz at TP reports on the latest Congressional Budget Office analysis, which sets the record straight.
While the report explains that troop retention will decline because some troops will take advantage of their new education benefits, the loss in retention will be entirely made up for by increased military recruits:
“Literature on the effects of educational benefits on retention suggest that every $10,000 increase in educational benefits yields a reduction in retention of slightly more than 1 percentage point. CBO estimates that S. 22 (as modified) would more than double the present value of educational benefits for servicemembers at the first reenlistment point — from about $40,000 to over $90,000 — implying a 16 percent decline in the reenlistment rate, from about 42 percent to about 36 percent. […]
“Educational benefits have been shown to raise the number of military recruits. Based on an analysis of the existing literature, CBO estimates that a 10 percent increase in educational benefits would result in an increase of about 1 percent in high-quality recruits. On that basis, CBO calculates that raising the educational benefits as proposed in S. 22 would result in a 16 percent increase in recruits.”
Yep, McCain really is full of it.
Filed Under: Jim Webb, John McCain, Military, Supporting our Troops
No Trackbacks To “On GI Bill, McCain really is ‘full of it’“
GI Bill put me through college in the 90s. It was the only decent thing Reagan did. McLame is a moron politician millionaire. Screw Him.
As our current financial meltdown continues, military service will be the ONLY avenue to higher education. Where else would we get the soldiers we need to take over the Middle East? Hope the smart ones don’t get killed.
It says a helluva lot about your country, when the only way people can go to “college” is to enlist in a killing machine. Oh ya, nobody is in the military to kill people, but to further their education, cuz hey that is the way it is in every nation, isn’t it? Ha!
Marcus Aurelius @ 2:
….um……question…….what the hell kind of job does everyone in the US get by going to “college” in the military? McD’s requires college?
What word is a solution to earn more in one month than the whole GI bill for those considering the military, which our soldiers are currently undervalued? Blackwater.
No GI Bill
No enlistment bonuses
No educational benefits
NO STANDING ARMY!
ConcernedCanuck @ 4:
You attend the universtity or trade school of your choice and are reimbursed for tuition and living expenses.
Good thing freaks like McCrazy weren’t running the government at the end of WWII. There would have been no GI Bill for returning vets and, consequently, no creation of a large middle-class in this country. Then again, with douchebags like McCrazy and the rest of his ideological bretheren on the Right, the may be just be the point, wouldn’t it? I must say, I’m really getting sick of this guy. With each day I have to see his stupid mug on tv or the Internets, I become more and more repulsed and disgusted. The upside (if you want to call it that)is the reichwingers know what a weak candidate he is; they’re scared to death of the prospect of this senile turd having to face off against Obama.
Correction: should read “that may just be the point….” Tucking fypos!
On GI Bill, McCain really is ‘full of it’ … seems you guys forgot the SH in that last word.
First ad I’d like to see the Obama campaign put out against McCain - one that makes a point of saying how he has no problem of paying contractors like Blackwater billions of dollars but voted against a GI bill for vets who volunteered to serve this country. Put that ad out there and keep running it; it will be devasting for the McCrazy campaign.
The right wing hates America. The GI Bills of earlier wars gave access to careers to any number of people who could never have gotten so far without those benefits. The whole country will gain by increasing education access to our troops.
geneHUSSEIN214 @ 8:
Actually, if they hadn’t done a lot of what they did after WWII, it’s not out of the realm of possibility for a dictatorship in the US by at least what would be the Reagan Era. Millions of men (the WWII army was some 16 million-strong) with military training and no stake in the current affairs leads to turmoil everywhere. The Soviets treated Red Army veterans better after WWII than the US did.
Besides, most of McPapen’s types would have been fascists before WWII, and then after Yamamoto struck at Pearl, they likely would have flocked to the Democrats (in the South) and the Republicans (in the North and West.) What I’m concerned about is Hitler was a decorated war veteran. If we repeat similar mistakes to Ludendorff and Hindenburg and the Weimar era regarding the Army…
Ruth @ 12:
Yep, they want to limit access to university education. I saw it as tuition rose 12% a year while I was in school and more and more students on loans and Pell grants had to drop out. Can you imagine what Chimpy would be today if he was subject to a little competition for educational advancement? He wouldn’t be the “oil man”, he’d be the “oil change man”.
McCain’s arguement makes no sense. The military, just like those of other nations are always in competition with civilian occupations. Its always been that way. This is why those benefits need to be raised. It keeps the military competative. If they do not raise them even fewer people will enlist down the road and more re-enlistees will get out. Eventually the only people that will take the military up on their offer is the worst of the worst that society has to offer. Imagine a military filled with crack junkies, meth users and other assorted criminals that don’t even have a GED. McCain’s opposition to raising the G.I. bill benefits will only lead to a much smaller and worse off military in the end.
Besides, there is a clear message being sent out by those that oppose the raising of G.I. bill benefits. It says to every person that is currently in or about to go into the military that when you get out the Government will toss you aside like an old shoe.
Jeez, it’s not like they wouldn’t just Stop Loss ‘em anyway…
Joe O. @ 16:
Which is, aside from WWII, what’s happened every other time. The Washington Administration had to deal with a rebellion over it.
Marcus Aurelius @ 2:
at what level of education would you shut off that hope for survival?
ConcernedCanuck @ 3:
Exactly and one of the few places in the US that health care is provided weak as it is for GI’s The United States has decayed into an international bully. I would be willing to bet a certain current president displayed many of those tendencies in his youth urging others to beat up the little kids and take their lunch money or oil if they had it
42% less 16% is 26%, not 36% as you state in the article.
As a pacifist, I’m not especially interested in increasing the number of new recruits for the war machine.
I am interested in doing right by those who make that choice, however. And denying them these benefits is just plain wrong. The old G.I. Bill gave my Korean War veteran father the chance to attend college after his service. He was able to become the first person in his family to earn a degree. That degree provided his family with an income that allowed me to go to college and come out debt free, and then provide for my family.
There should be better ways to get our young people a college education than to have them carry a gun in our imperialist adventures. But if we’re going to send them there, we should look after them when they get home.
Sadly, that’s rarely been part of the equation. We tend to use them up and them kick them to the curb.
Nice job, Senator. You seem to forget who paid for your education.
Boy, this educational benefits appears to be only the beginning. Now, as we see from this article that if you don’t survive Bush’s wars to collect on your G.I. benefits you can at least look forward to being cremated with your pet dog Fido!
US Makes Changes To Cremations For Slain Troops
“The Pentagon is recommending changes in the handling of troops’ remains, after it was revealed that a crematorium contracted by the military handles both human and animal cremations.
A military official said there have been no instances or charges that human and pet remains were mixed.”
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....01084.html
This kind of shit makes my blood boil. This guy calls himself a war hero, but he would throw everyone else who has served his or her country under the bus. Any GI or vet who would vote for this clown are just plain stupid.
R Warsager @ 21:
It’s a 16% decline from the current rate. Not 16% from 42%, but 16% of 42%.
I am hoping Obama will consider Jim Webb as his running mate (if he is the nominee). Webb is the counter-balance to Obama’s strengths. The two of them would be a dream ticket. Webb doesn’t hesitate to call the Repugs on their bullshit.
Joe O. @ 23:
if a servicemans family wishes thier son or daughters body cremated and his hers family pets been cremated i see no objections for thier ashes to be put in the same container or grave , after most animals are better then most humans , and have a hell of a lot more loyality to thier masters then any who object to it, as for myself i have asked to be cremated and my dog king who sets on my computer room shelf mixed with my ashes and poured into the ohio river together so we can both go to new orleans together , its better then rotting in some flucking grave!
Debby Hussain @ 26:
I think that is a great idea. Besides, with Webb’s military experience, he would make a fine addition to Obama who lacks in military experience and would make a good liason to the military over all.
may have been mentioned, and i don’t know the details, but yesterday rachel maddow reported that this bill is also being held up by BLUE DOG DEMOCRATS…
go figure…
What really pisses me off the most about McBush. Is he is on the public dole from cradle to grave. The taxpayer has always paid for his health care. And paid for his college education to. This man has no idea what it takes to live without depending on goverment to take care of him.
tyree @ 27:
From that individual perspective I can see your point. If a person wishes to be cremated with their pet then that is their choice. However, from that article it doesn’t look like the troops had that luxury to choose. Who knows, they may have been thrown in with some unknown person’s pet cat named Fluffy and stuck in a urn or urns. Boy, just when you think that the Government couldn’t be any more cheap they come up with something like this. How much do you want to bet that a Republican came up with that idea. I’d say the odds are pretty good.
Haze @ 30:
That is basically ALL politicians. How long has Hillary been on taxpayer welfare? Obama? McCain? Colin Powell? Donald Rumsfeld? Dickhead Cheney? Webb? Pelosi? Reid? Dean? It’s disgusting, but these are SUPPOSED to be the idiots with the solutions to all the problems. Ya, right.
Not to worry.
mcwar will just start a draft.
Joe O. @ 31:
i am assumeing thier pet has allready passed on and was cremated and given to his her family for disposal later, thier is no way to verify unless you see the actual cremation that the remais are actualy your pets, guess you have to just go on faith that it is!
getalife @ 33:
To really get this country mobilized for war like some of ya’ll think McPapen would do requires 2 years if everything goes off without a hitch. Looking at the way politicians take something simple and complicate it, maybe four years. Either way, it would be pretty damn obvious to Iran that the war would be coming. It took eight carrier wings and an army designed to maul the Red Army to beat Saddam. About 13 years later, that army can’t control Iraq very well.
McPapen, if he tries to do this, would telegraph it so blatantly that it would hit the fan.
he is not just “full of it”. If you examine the reasoning behind McCain’s position it can easily be described as an attempt to trap these kids into the military. McCain got the same GI Bill that I did..the Vietnam one. It paid for 4 years of my undergraduate study and without it I would not be where I am today. Now, if troop retention is the issue then they can bring back the “Tuition Assistance” program. In that program an active duty soldier would go to evening classes at a local college or in the outreach programs from the University of Maryland on base and take college credit courses. The soldier only paid for the books as the tuition and fees were picked up by Uncle Sugar. So McCain ought to love the program as you have to be on active duty to partake in it. I was able to accrue about 45 hours of credits using this program in millitary assignments in Germany, Texas and Oklahoma. There was a program in Vietnam as well but it was only at major bases and I was stuck in a shit-hole that did not have the option. In any case, McCain PUT YOUR DAMN PATRIOTISM WHERE YOUR MOUTH IS and give the kids a shot at the pie you are asking them to fight for.
Joe O. @ 16:
I believe the word you’re looking for Joe is cannon fodder…..grandpa simpson wants more soldiers it seems. But I think he’s looking for them to die in battle so he doesn’t have to worry about the coming home part
Where I live, if you want to go to college, you get a student loan. You don’t join the military as an excuse. That’s pathetic. All that patriotic troop support drivel is just that, if the only reason you are there is to supposedly further your education. Not everyone requires to have a college education. That pure unaldulterated phallacy was shot full of holes years ago. It is a waste of time and money for an overwhelming majority of young people. Colleges and universities have turned into healthy businesses, instead of places to learn skills to get jobs. There is a huge shortage of blue collar workers in almost every industrial nation. College will not train you for those jobs. Whining about the government losing jobs overseas does not solve the problem, if you can’t find anyone in your own nation that is willing to actually work. The problem is, everyone THINKS going to college will get them that great “office” job that doesn’t exist. But whatever, keep up the cool scam of enlisting to further your career goals.
This country has a terrible record of taking care of their veterns. We didn’t do shit for them untill WW2. Now when someone wants to give back to our GI’s for the service they have given this country, McCain say’s they haven’t given enough. Some of these men and women have paid with their blood and limbs. They have given their all, and yet we have people like McCain and blue dog dems who say NO because they haven’t served long enough or it would cost to much. It really shows how these people who supported this worthless war really feel about the people who have fought it for them. A paux on all their house’s.
That’s a real war hero for ya, screw the troops.
He got his so damn the enlisted men. All they need them for is to be statistics.
This will be a great issue to bash him with. How, in all good conscience can a veteran be willing to cut benefits for those who are willing to serve, is beyond me. This will surely cost him votes. And it should.
You folks must be brain dead or just not very bright. You are all arguing like a) there is no GI benefits today and that McCain is blocking an attempt to enact a GI bill - this bill is to extend them, and he has argued in favor of that. THIS bill is being held up by McCain and many democrats because democratic leadership once again (like their “child” healthcare initiative) want to add a bunch of obnoxious pork and enact hand-tying regulations to an otherwise good cause- Orwellian doublespeak. Take those out of there and the bill would sail through.
And the people that are stating that the only way to go to college is to enlist in the “war” machine? What are you smoking? College is filled with non-military, and there is so much aid available, and so many state schools available that anyone wanting to go to college can easily do so.
The current crop of Republicans (and a few others in DC) really are ‘third generational’ in the classic sense,
absolute typical example of 3rd gen losers and failed fascists.
They cant win wars against tribal or urban insurgents, they cant win the various GWO?s like drugs or poverty or education,
no matter that they spend 100s billions
deliberately !losing these various ‘wars’.The Republicans cant even restore one of Americas large cities New Orleans and get the willing population back into decent housing, go check out goog