Team Infidel
Forum Spin Doctor
USA Today
May 13, 2008
Pg. 10
Opposing view
Webb's more generous proposal would reward troops for service.
By George Lisicki
There is no argument in Washington that the Montgomery GI Bill has not kept pace with rising college costs — it provides for less than 70% of public tuitions and 30% of private — but there is debate on how to improve the benefit. That is where two Senate colleagues and fellow Vietnam War veterans — James Webb, D-Va., and John McCain, R-Ariz. — are at odds.
Webb's plan would pay the highest in-state tuition; provide for fees, books and a living stipend; boost Guard and Reserve benefits; and match private institution rates dollar-for-dollar. McCain's proposal would also increase education benefits, especially for those who stay in uniform longer, and would allow the benefit to transfer to spouses or children.
Fearing a mass exodus of first-term enlistees, the Defense Department is against Webb's bill, to the point that the department is reticent to even acknowledge that a better benefit might attract more qualified applicants, which could boost both recruiting and retention goals.
A compromise might be on the horizon, but until then, my organization remains solidly behind Webb's bill because it meets a top legislative goal for a new GI Bill for the 21st century. We appreciate the efforts of Sen. McCain and others who are trying to update this benefit, but the Pentagon needs to focus on reality — one being that young people enlisting today will go to war, come home, then reintegrate into society. Another is that not everyone will make the military a career, nor would everyone be allowed.
In his University of Texas campus newspaper this month, LBJ School of Public Affairs professor Edwin Dorn said, "The GI Bill is an incentive … (that) becomes less of an incentive if you talk to an 18-year-old about what's going to happen 12 years from now."
Webb's bill is the right legislation at the right time. It would ease transition, reduce financial burdens, and introduce educated and highly motivated employees into the American workplace. It has strong bipartisan support in Congress and the endorsement of every major veterans' organization. It is something the troops expect from their nation, and it is something all Americans should demand that their Congress deliver.
George Lisicki, a Vietnam War veteran from Carteret, N.J., is the national commander of the 2.3 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars.
May 13, 2008
Pg. 10
Opposing view
Webb's more generous proposal would reward troops for service.
By George Lisicki
There is no argument in Washington that the Montgomery GI Bill has not kept pace with rising college costs — it provides for less than 70% of public tuitions and 30% of private — but there is debate on how to improve the benefit. That is where two Senate colleagues and fellow Vietnam War veterans — James Webb, D-Va., and John McCain, R-Ariz. — are at odds.
Webb's plan would pay the highest in-state tuition; provide for fees, books and a living stipend; boost Guard and Reserve benefits; and match private institution rates dollar-for-dollar. McCain's proposal would also increase education benefits, especially for those who stay in uniform longer, and would allow the benefit to transfer to spouses or children.
Fearing a mass exodus of first-term enlistees, the Defense Department is against Webb's bill, to the point that the department is reticent to even acknowledge that a better benefit might attract more qualified applicants, which could boost both recruiting and retention goals.
A compromise might be on the horizon, but until then, my organization remains solidly behind Webb's bill because it meets a top legislative goal for a new GI Bill for the 21st century. We appreciate the efforts of Sen. McCain and others who are trying to update this benefit, but the Pentagon needs to focus on reality — one being that young people enlisting today will go to war, come home, then reintegrate into society. Another is that not everyone will make the military a career, nor would everyone be allowed.
In his University of Texas campus newspaper this month, LBJ School of Public Affairs professor Edwin Dorn said, "The GI Bill is an incentive … (that) becomes less of an incentive if you talk to an 18-year-old about what's going to happen 12 years from now."
Webb's bill is the right legislation at the right time. It would ease transition, reduce financial burdens, and introduce educated and highly motivated employees into the American workplace. It has strong bipartisan support in Congress and the endorsement of every major veterans' organization. It is something the troops expect from their nation, and it is something all Americans should demand that their Congress deliver.
George Lisicki, a Vietnam War veteran from Carteret, N.J., is the national commander of the 2.3 million-member Veterans of Foreign Wars.