The Daily Background

Fresh off their threats to veto a bill which funds health care for poor children, the Administration is signaling that it opposes another Democratic bill which provides increased funding for Iraq and Afghanistan veteran’s education:

The Bush administration opposes a Democratic effort to restore full educational benefits for returning veterans, according to an official’s comments last week.

Senate Democrats, led by Virginia’s Jim Webb, want the government to pay every penny of veterans’ educational costs, from tuition at a public university to books, housing and a monthly stipend.

Such a benefit was a major feature of the historic 1944 G.I. Bill, which put more than eight million U.S. soldiers through college and is now credited by historians as fueling the expansion of America’s middle class in the post-war era.

Just another example of this Administration supporting the troops. You know, unless they need body armor, or want to keep their combat pay, or need health care after they come home from the middle east, or unless they have a psychological disorder, or unless they– God forbid– want to go to college. Some hard numbers: the program currently costs $2b annually, which would be increased to $5.4b in order to cover 100% of veteran’s education, rather than just the 75% it has “dwindled” to, after the G.I. bill was updated in 1985 (it apparently has not been updated in more than 20 years).

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