The Truth will prevail, But only if we Demand it from Congress!
9-11 Inside Job and Neocons Hacked 2004
By Aaron Glantz, AlterNet
Posted on May 2, 2008, Printed on May 2, 2008
http://www.alternet.org/story/84010/
Everyone knows McCain is a former prisoner of war, but did you know
he refuses to support a bipartisan effort to modernize the GI Bill
and has voted against nearly every effort to increase funding for
healthcare and disability benefits for wounded soldiers? Did you
know that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA) gave him a
D+ when they scored his voting record (whereas Obama got a B+ and
Clinton an A-). Do you know that he voted with the interests of
Disabled American Veterans (DAV) only 20 percent of the time?
Take a moment to look at his record:
In 2005 and 2006, McCain voted against expanding mental healthcare
and readjustment counseling for service members returning from Iraq
and Afghanistan, efforts to expand inpatient and outpatient
treatment for injured veterans, and proposals to lower co-payments
and enrollment fees veterans must pay to obtain prescription drugs.
"There was an effort to increase the budget for veterans' healthcare
beyond what President [George W.] Bush had requested as part of his
budget," DAV spokesperson Dave Autry explains. "The idea was to
increase funding for veterans' healthcare by cutting back on tax
breaks for the wealthy. The proposals were pushed by Democrats and
opposed by Republicans in almost straight party-line votes."
In other words, John McCain's votes indicate he would rather give
tax cuts to the rich than care for wounded veterans (Neither
McCain's campaign office, nor his Senate press secretary responded
to telephone and email inquiries for this story).
McCain's vote also helped defeat a proposal by Democratic Sen.
Debbie Stabenow that would have made veterans' healthcare an
entitlement program like social security, so that medical care would
not become a political football to be argued over in Congress each
budget cycle.
Up until recently, these votes hadn't haunted John McCain. Reporters
habitually rehashed his story of heroism four decades ago without
looking at his voting record in the present. But now that he's the
presumptive Republican nominee for president, a coalition of
veterans groups, liberal activists, and Democratic PACs have decided
to target McCain over his failure to support S.22, a bipartisan
effort to improve the GI Bill.
The bill, by Sens. Jim Webb, D-Va., and Chuck Hagel, R-Neb., would
bring back WWII-era measures that provided vets with full college
tuition along with room and board. Right now, those vets who try to
use the GI Bill to attend school are eligible to receive only $1,100
a month for a maximum of three years. It is an amount that doesn't
come close to covering the cost of a modern college education.
So far 57 senators have signed on as co-sponsors. But the bill
remains nine votes short of the supermajority necessary to kill a
filibuster.
"It's time for Sen. McCain to stand up for veterans and be a
leader," the chairman of VoteVets, Iraq war veteran Jon Soltz, said
in a statement. "The success or failure of this bill largely rests
on his shoulders. He is the de facto leader of the Republican Party.
If he signs onto the bill, it will pass and become law. If he
doesn't support it, he needs to explain why he doesn't."
Earlier this month, VoteVets launched an on-line video and petition
drive targeting McCain. The four-minute video was produced by Brave
New Films (which brought us Outfoxed and Iraq for Sale) with funds
from retired Gen. Wesley Clark's WesPAC. It features four veterans
of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan testifying on the problems
they've faced with the current G.I. Bill.
"When I enlisted, I was under the impression that my college would
be paid for, that I would have everything taken care of," Iraq war
veteran Joshua Drake says in the video.
"The current G.I. Bill is inadequate," the former Navy corpsman
added. "It hasn't kept up with the cost of inflation or the cost of
tuition or the cost of books ... If I could talk to John McCain, I
would try to appeal to him as a fellow veteran."
On April 29, more than 100 Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans held a
press conference on Capitol Hill with the same message, in an effort
to turn up the heat on McCain and other lawmakers.
McCain's response has been to propose his own, less expansive
version of the GI Bill. Last week, he introduced a bill entitled the
Enhancement of Recruitment, Retention, and Readjustment through
Education Act, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Lindsey Graham,
R-S.C., Richard Burr, R-N.C.
Their bill would modestly increase the amount of money available to
veterans using the GI Bill from $1,100 to $1,500 a month (still less
than the cost of tuition at many public universities and still for
only three years). The bill would also close some bureaucratic
loopholes that cause GI Bill benefits to count as income, which
disqualifies many needy veterans from student loans.
In announcing his bill, McCain made no mention of the more ambitious
effort being championed by Webb and Hagel or the increasing attacks
leveled at him by partisan and veterans organizations.
"We have an obligation to provide unwavering support to our nation's
veterans, and that is precisely what this legislation does," McCain
said in a statement (he was out campaigning and did not attend the
press conference announcing the bill). "Men and women who serve
their country in uniform deserve the best education benefits we are
able to give them."
Veterans groups were unimpressed.
"Sens. McCain, Graham and Burr are shortchanging our veterans and
undermining America's heroes as they reach for the American dream,"
said VoteVets's Soltz. "Frankly, it hurts to have two veterans, like
Sens. McCain and Graham treat us like this. We would expect that
they would have more honor than that."
Aaron Glantz is the author of two upcoming books on Iraq: The War
Comes Home: Washington's Battle Against America's Veterans (UC
Press) and Winter Soldier Iraq and Afghanistan: Eyewitness Accounts
of the Occupations (Haymarket). He edits the website
WarComesHome.org.
© 2008 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/84010/
