John McCain refused last week to show up in the US Senate to vote on the 21st Century GI Bill, which passed last week by a veto-proof majority. Both he and his campaign surrogates admit that the Arizona Senator opposed the bill as being too generous and potentially harming Pentagon retention efforts.
In other words, John McCain opposed a bill that is designed to specifically reward the 1.7 million veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan and the region after 9/11 because he wants them to stay in the service. He thinks generous benefits on a scale unseen since World War II will undermine his plans to continue the occupation in Iraq with no end in sight by providing those who have already done their military service with civilian alternatives.
McCain told ABC News last April that "I want to make sure that we have incentives for people to remain in the military as well as for people to join the military." When asked by FOX News' Bill O'Reilly earlier this month, "So the longer you stay, the more you get?" McCain responded, "Yes, the more you get, because we want people to stay in."
Instead of supporting the 21st Century GI Bill, McCain introduced a far less generous bill that would make it harder for many service members and veterans to pay the cost of attending college.
Despite his claims to honored military service, McCain's refusal to support veterans seems to be habitual. Time magazine reported May 20th in an article titled "Does McCain have a Vets Problem?" that a nonpartisan study revealed that McCain has only voted for veterans funding 30 percent of the time. The same study showed that Barack Obama has voted for veterans funding 90 percent of the time.
