A Better G.I. Bill

On Nov. 9 of last year, U.S. Senators and Vietnam veterans Jim Webb (D-Va.) and Chuck Hagel (R-Neb.) published an op-ed piece in The New York Times calling for a newly expanded version of the G.I. Bill, the landmark piece of World War II-era legislation that completely paid a veteran’s way through school. It also provided a year’s worth of employment compensation and low-interest, zero-down home loans that allowed millions of families to flourish in the American postwar boom.

Subsequent versions of the G.I. Bill have been less far-reaching. The last time it was updated was in 1984, and today’s veterans receive an average of a paltry $800 a month for college if they pay $100 a month for the first year of enlistment, according to Webb and Hagel’s Times piece. This, as they pointed out, is barely enough to pay tuition at a community college, let alone the costs of textbooks and living expenses.

So, the senators argued, let’s expand the G.I. Bill. Last week they got the House of Representatives to do just that, passing a bill with a veto-proof majority that would raise $52 billion over the next 10 years to essentially provide veterans who have served for three years with the money for tuition and fees at any in-state public school, and a monthly stipend for housing.

The money would be raised by increasing income taxes by half a percentage point on individuals who make $500,000 or more and couples who make $1 million or more.

Maybe it goes without saying, but this new G.I. Bill would be amazing. Veterans have been getting the short end of the stick for more than a little while, to put it mildly. In 2005, The National Alliance to End Homelessness found that one in four homeless people is a veteran, though veterans constitute just over one-tenth the population.

Homeless advocates are also reporting a large early influx of veterans from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, a grim sign considering it took Vietnam vets about 10 years after they were out of service before they began appearing among the homeless.

A new G.I. Bill would take care of our veterans at a time when the price of getting an education is skyrocketing, and the price of not getting one is even higher. It would help keep veterans off the streets, ensure a more educated populace for the future and provide upward mobility for potentially hundreds of thousands of people. This needs to happen.

The Senate will likely vote on the bill when they return to session in the beginning of June, and with 58 sponsors, it will almost certainly pass. Whether it will gain a veto-proof majority is another question, and it’s a pretty important one, as one of the few opponents of the Webb-Hagel bill is a certain Bush administration, as well as a certain Republican presidential candidate from Arizona.

Bush has threatened to veto the bill, for fear of losing retention among an already stretched military. He is in support of a different bill that would combat this by allowing veterans who re-enlist to transfer their educational benefits to family members. This bill is backed by John McCain, and is in many ways a watered-down version of the Webb-Hagel bill, with plans to raise only $38 billion over 10 years. McCain’s bill, co-sponsored by Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Richard Burr (R-N.C.), would raise money by making an across-the-board half percentage point cut in discretionary spending.

Quite recently, the Webb-Hagel bill was modified to include a “transferability” segment similar to that in the McCain bill. There’s been no word from the White House as to whether this has changed Bush’s mind, though I wouldn’t hold my breath.

The Webb-Hagel bill has received broad support from a multitude of veteran organizations, including the American Legion and the Veterans of Foreign Wars, an organization that has largely sided with Bush in the past but has actively confronted him on this issue. A new PAC called www.VoteVets.org has begun running TV ads against Bush and McCain for their opposition to the bill. Other organizations that have come out supporting the bill are the American Association of Community Colleges and the American Council on Education.

Who opposes this bill? Almost nobody, except for, oh right, the President, who will veto the legislation, and a handful of senators who will vote against it and possibly give the veto-deciding power. And people who make over $500,000 a year, who have a knack for grabbing the ears of said president and senators.

So what’s my point? Here it is: Seven years after we elected Bush, we are still being bamboozled. As our eyes have turned to the glitz of presidential primaries and American Idol winners, these folks are still behind the scenes, blocking real, genuine attempts to make changes for the better for this country. And they’ll stay there long after Dubya is a bad-tasting memory.

As college students, we are well positioned to play a part in fighting this, and in decades to come, we will be the ones who have to do it. So as the academic year draws to a close and summer beckons in what is an extraordinary time for our nation, take action.

Be it as little as writing your Congressperson or as big as working on a campaign for the summer, don’t be idle. The McBushes in Washington, the ones blocking education for the people who risked their lives because those same McBushes told them it was a good idea–they’re making these decisions because no voice big or rich or powerful enough has made them do otherwise. Yet.

Let’s be a part of that voice. Not believing in democracy is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and participation in that democracy doesn’t stop at the ballots that got counted last Tuesday. Help make a difference somewhere this summer and in the coming year–whatever you believe in, whatever you’re passionate about and whatever you can do.