President Bush today signed into law today the G.I. Bill, which will double college benefits for troops and veterans, despite his earlier threats to veto the measure. The bill was attached to the $850 billion war supplemental that allocates and additional $650 billion for the war in Iraq and $200 billion for Afghanistan. Among those Bush thanked, oddly enough, was John McCain, who until recently opposed the bill on the grounds that it would cost too much, could harm military retention rates (as I wrote here) and didn’t include a provision that allows soldiers to transfer their education benefits to family members. (McCain skipped the votes on this amendment.)
Ultimately the transferability provision was included in the bill – upping the cost from an estimated $52 billion to $62 billion – and its inclusion allowed Bush and McCain to claim victory. “I’m happy to tell you that we probably agreed to an increase in educational benefits for our veterans that not only gives them increase in their educational benefits, but if they stay in for a certain period of time than they can transfer those educational benefits to their spouses and or children,” McCain told supporters Friday at a town hall event in Warren, Ohio.
What, you may ask, about his other objections? “Every bill isn’t going to be perfect but one of the major reasons that John McCain stands head and shoulders above his opponent in this election is that he is willing to work with other members across the aisle to ensure that the most important initiatives in this legislation are included,” explained McCain spokesman Tucker Bounds. “He felt very strongly about the educational benefit transferability and we see it as a success.”
McCain and Bush’s myopic view of the bill left a few eyebrows raised. “While the White House and McCain stress transferability, they fail to give credit to the new GI bill that hundreds of thousands of post 9/11 veterans will now be able to take advantage of,” said Kim Hunter, a spokeswoman for Jim Webb, the bill’s sponsor. “The President in his remarks today didn’t even acknowledge that veterans with get four years of tuition, room and board, and books paid for… he only pointed out the transferability provision.” But at least McCain will avoid being pounded by Obama, a co-sponsor of the measure, and veterans groups on this issue from now on.