June 30, 2008

Bush Signs Bill That Expands Education Benefits for Veterans

Washington — President Bush signed a war-spending bill today that will significantly expand education benefits for veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The legislation will provide veterans who have served in those wars for at least three years with enough aid to attend the most expensive public institution in their state, plus a monthly stipend for housing costs. For veterans attending more-costly private colleges, the law will match, dollar for dollar, any aid that the institutions provide above the cost of the most expensive public college in the state.

The law, which allocates about $162-billion to finance the wars, also will provide $400-million in new money for scientific research this year and reverse all layoffs at federal energy laboratories, ensuring continued access by academic scientists for their studies. —Sara Hebel

Comments

1. Might I suggest that this is the first good thing to happen in the GWB administration.

   — Savage Detective    Jun 30, 12:27 PM    #

2. Yes, you may. I’m wondering what the fine print said…

   — barbara    Jun 30, 04:16 PM    #

3. For the first time in my adult life, I am actually proud of a President Bush

   — Black Female Educator    Jun 30, 04:31 PM    #

4. Bush has bankrupt the nation so he might as well find more ways to put debt on future generations. TIC

   — Worth    Jun 30, 04:46 PM    #

5. wow…it’s sad to note our ingratitude over the fact that our nation has been kept safe from what was to be certain and impending follow-up attacks to 9-11. perhaps partisan thinking can be set aside to at least acknowledge that much?

   — fair play    Jun 30, 04:49 PM    #

6. Well Mr. fair play, I seem to recall the World Trade Center was bombed early in the Clinton administration and we had no more attacks until 9/11 under GWB. Are you so naive as to think we have been kept safe by actions of this administration (Iraq was not a haven for Al Qaida until we indulged in preemptive war). For a group so eager to engage in war, it’s been remarkable how reluctant GWB and company have been to look after those they put in harms way upon their return, especially since the war in Iraq has been underway since early 2003. The benefits initiative was not GWB’s. As I recall, he originally said he would veto the bill since this addition to his war funding request would make the bill too expensive. I’ve been around since FDR and without question GWB is the worst US President in my lifetime, and may well be the worst in US history. January, 2009 can’t come soon enough.

   — CW    Jun 30, 04:56 PM    #

7. CW: Amen! I can’t think of a single positive note on George W. Bush that will find its way into future history books. In the sixties I used to overuse the word “fascist” but in Dubya’s case the word now has new meaning.

   — Savage Detective    Jun 30, 05:09 PM    #

8. The President considered an increase of survivor death benefits to 12k tax free to be a waste, and said so at that provision’s signing. The President and Congressional leaders confirmed the VA Sec’y with the understanding that he would support cuts. The House and Senate VA Chairs who supported increases lost their seats prematurely. I’m proud of Bush on Burma. But this was a Congressional, and Veteran, win.

   — KG    Jun 30, 05:18 PM    #

9. I agree with those above. The Bush administrations have been unmitigated disasters. This is the FIRST thing he has done that really makes sense.

   — Al    Jun 30, 05:29 PM    #

10. September 11 was not, in my humble opinion, an attack on America. Just like our bombs and attacks in Iraq and Afghanistan are not attacks on the IRAQ and Afghanistan, but on certain portions of the population in Iraq (Saddam Hussein and his guard) and Afghanistan (Taliban and the Northern Alliance). The September 11 attack was an attack on Wall Street, the WTO organization and the Military Complex (Pentagon). The spin by those in these groups was to make it an attack on America. Saddam Hussein did the same when we , the USA, the UK and Australia, attacked Iraq. So one need to be careful when ones listens and hears one’s government and its propaganda instruments. Hence Freedom of the Press is fundamental. We have not realized that there were NO WEAPONS of Mass Destruction in Iraq. There were NO IRAQI soldiers taking Kuwaiti babies from incubators. The American, so called free press, was used and played as a propaganda pro war means, like the press and media were used to be pro war in Nazi Germany, Imperialist Japan. Who was attacked on September 11? And why? Who was attacked in Waco, Texas and why? Who was attacked in Oklahoma City and by whom and why?

    A good book to read is
    Making Sense of Suicide Missions, Edited by Diego Gambetta, published by Oxford University Press. It should be read by all political science students and anyone who talks about September 11, Oklahoma City, Waco Texas, Kent State, the University of Wisconsin at Madison bombing during the Vietnam War, the fire bombings of Dresden and Tokyo during WWII and the two nukes thrown on the Japanese. The term collateral damage and friendly fire were created by the military during WWII for the killing of innocent civilians (the September 11 and Oklahoma City causalities would be called collateral damage by our own military leaders if they were on the other side). So we need to understand the policies by our government, banks, financial institutions, real estate agents and realtors, lawyers, insurance companies, universities, police, judges and even normal citizens who accept injustices (like the German people did in accepting the policies of the Nazi Party and the Japanese people accepting the policies of the imperial government of Japan and now even the Chinese people for accepting the cultural genocide in Tibet by the regime in power in Mainland Communist China). So there is SENSE to be made from suicide missions.

    One of our most famous American freedom and liberty fighters Patrick Henry said, before he was killed/murdered as a so-called terrorists:
    Give me Liberty or give me Death. We had pilots who responded to the bombing of Pearl Harbor by dropping bombs and crashing their planes in Tokyo (our September 11 attack on Japan), in response to Pearl Harbor. The real question, what was the cause of September 11? Why did these young men attack Wall Street and the American Military complex. We all know why Oklahoma City occurred. It was a response to the Waco City Massacre. With high likelihood the agents who attacked Waco Texas were out of the Oklahoma City office. At least Tim thought so. He was a decorated Gulf veteran. What could make a decorated war veteran turn against his own government? What caused so Germans to try to kill Hilter? They did not succeed and suffered the same fate as those who tried to kill Saddam Hussein, but who also did not succeed. In the USA our own citizens succeeded in killing A. Lincoln and JF Kenedy, Robert Kennedy and M.L. King. In Pakistan, they succeed recently in killing B. Bhutto. In India Ghandi, in Egypt Sadat. Why? Again. Read the Oxford University Press book: Making Sense of Suicide Missions. And Hopefully both McCain and Obama do and the head of our CIA, Homeland Security, FBI, the Army, Navy, Marine Corp, the Air Force and even now the National Guard, as President Bush is now sending National Guard troops to the Front Lines in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    — Karl    Jun 30, 05:32 PM    #

11. CW et al-You’ve confused me for Bush supporter, which on the whole I am most certainly not. I asked ONLY that partisanship be set aside for an honest evaluation of the pros and cons. Clearly your passions have taken you beyond the ability to reasonably asses reality, hence the biggest problem with American politics. We let our passions, not our heads rule.

    Thank you, by the way, for your insult in calling me naive, further supporting my point.

    — fair play    Jun 30, 05:33 PM    #

12. Karl,

    Maybe the 9/11 attacks were against “Wall Street, the WTO organization and the Military Complex (Pentagon).”

    If so, there was an awful lot of indescriminate collateral damage.

    We really need to apply your view of history more broadly, shouldn’t we? So the Japanese never attacked the U.S. at Pearl Harbor. (Slaps head…) Their military complex was attacking our military complex. Why on earth did we overreact like we did?

    — Green Eyeshade    Jul 1, 05:53 AM    #

13. I have not read the war-spending bill recently signed by President Bush. I wonder, however, about the interaction between students who are seated next to each other, one enjoying the benefits of the war-funding bill, the other enjoying the benefits of a bank loan, both in competition for the same job.

    — Leon Schefers    Jul 1, 08:05 AM    #

14. Leon – perhaps they do “enjoy” the benefits of the war-funding bill, but their families do not enjoy worrying 24/7 about their loved ones being in danger in a war zone. You have no clue what that is like. These people volunteered to put their lives on the line and their lives on hold while serving while you blithely discuss the competition for a job. Go visit a VA hospital some time and get some perspective of what these men and women have sacrificed. Go visit the families of those deployed and try to understand how hard it is to get through the day (and night) wondering if the people at the door are the base commander and the base chaplain coming to tell you that your husband has been killed in action. I’ve been there, and while I don’t support the war, I certainly support the men and women who are there AND their families. They deserve this benefit to offset the rotten pay and the rotten conditions that most have to live with.

    — Tracy G    Jul 1, 09:04 AM    #

15. Agree totally with Tracy G. This is the very least the government can do.

    — Ken T.    Jul 1, 10:18 AM    #

16. “I wonder, however, about the interaction between students who are seated next to each other, one enjoying the benefits of the war-funding bill, the other enjoying the benefits of a bank loan, both in competition for the same job.”

    I see no conflict at all. They’re both students, have come there by different paths, but both have an opportunity to learn and compete in the marketplace. To me, this is a completely manufactured concern.

    — Al    Jul 1, 10:57 AM    #

17. No elaborate prose is required. GWB has made this nation considerably less safe, and in all respects he is a leading candidate for the worst President in the history of the United States. But, this is a good bill. The end.

    — DLS    Jul 1, 11:54 AM    #

18. And the chump had the utter, lying audacity to give credit to himself, his administration and to John McCain. Have there ever been a bigger group of baldfaced liars? They treat the people of the United States like we were so dumb we won’t notice. They will say anything.

    — Karlin Wainscott    Jul 1, 02:58 PM    #

19. I will be glad when the Democrats take complete control of the government in 2009. As a Republican, I am ready to toss some tomatoes. Getting hit with them is no fun.

    — GT    Jul 1, 04:49 PM    #

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