After a political deal cut late Wednesday, Senate Democrats plan to allow a vote on Sen. Jim Webb's bill to expand college benefits for military veterans.
Webb's bill, which would cost $52 billion over 10 years, would allow veterans to attend the most expensive in-state public university in their home state, Barb Barrett reports.
His bill is co-sponsored by a majority of the Senate and has been endorsed by several veterans' groups.
Sen. Richard Burr is trying to persuade leadership to allow a debate on his and Sen. Lindsey Graham's bill as well. Their proposal, about $38 billion over 10 years, would raise the monthly stipend for veterans.
To address concerns from the Pentagon about troop retention, their bill also allows the full education benefit to be transferred to military members after 12 years of service. It also is authored by Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
"What we're here today to do is have a choice between something and nothing. I'm not sure that's fair for our veterans," Burr said on the floor. "The politics of this has gotten ugly."
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Re: Burr wants debate on his G.I. bill
I am all for the military however, shouldn’t we have a discussion on priorities for future years tax dollars? Our politicians, both parties, including presidents from LBJ to now have spent us into the poor house. All I hear is that we are the richest nation in the world. After a while, we begin to believe it! How can a country be rich when our politicians have mortgaged our kids and grandkids future?
We are almost $10 trillion dollars indebt with the federal debt being raised five times since 2002. Communist Red China owns $460 billion of our IOUs and has $1.3 trillion U.S. dollars in cash in the bank. They have already told us they will destroy us and they can if they call in our notes and dump the cash on the world market. Oh, don’t forget we funded their ability to develop their first navy in over 500-years, including nuclear subs. Oh, do not forget our illegal immigration challenge. What is the cost to educate a child in a local school? Once you find out, ask yourself how many illegal aliens pay this much to educate their kids. What about their free medical care? Both of these are unfunded mandates and we are expected to be nice because it is the American thing to do. Is it American for our politicians to continue promising more and more just to buy our votes?