My Errant Mind

Congressional Democrats are looking for ways to kill a bill aimed at increasing educational benefits for veterans and ensuring that enlistees are getting the benefits they are promised. The $2 billion bill, Sen. Jim Webb’s Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act, is meant to do the right thing for those serving their country, but Democrats are seeking to turn it into a weapon to use against the Bush administration by getting it vetoed.

President Bush has already said he will veto the bill if there are any attachments or amendments to it. Now, let’s look at why that is important…

The bill was created because educational benefits are one of the biggest enlistment incentives for prospective enlistees, and also because educational benefits are not keeping up with the cost of a college education. Congress is trying to do right by those protecting our nation—or rather, some in Congress are. The Democrats, however, see an opening—a way to wound the war machine they believe the current administration to be.

You see, if Democrats attach something to the bill, and the President vetoes it, it looks like the President is against increasing educational benefits for veterans he is sending off to war. It will also mean enlistment/recruiting efforts will suffer and many potential enlistees will think twice when they see that the military is not going to provide benefits that keep pace with costs of an education in America. You can’t hardly afford even a community college education on the current benefits.

Now, if this bill is to benefit our veterans, why can’t Democrats just leave it alone and allow those men and women to get what they have earned and more than deserve—more importantly, what they were promised? Because this is a chance to hurt enlistment, make the military and the administration look bad, a way to impact troop strength over the long term which will pressure the administration and the Department of Defense to wrap up the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan quickly. It could conceivably lead to premature withdrawal of troops as the military leadership begins to view the administration and Congress as non-supportive, leading to recommendations for disengagement from top generals—and which Congress and any administration would find hard to ignore.

Left alone, the bill will pass and provide the resources to ensure our veterans receive the benefits they signed up for and that they have earned. Left alone, it means more veterans are likely to complete a college or vocational education and find a new career after their military service is completed. Left alone, it means soldiers can plan for the next phase of their lives and try to get ahead in life, moving on as citizens with faith in the government, the military they served in, and their countrymen. It means a more brightly lighted path back to normalcy after enduring and surviving the war their countrymen determined they should fight.

So why the hell won’t Democrats leave the bill alone and do what is right?

Because the moonbat Democrats don’t want veterans moving on, or better educated. They might vote more Democrats out of jobs for one. Secondly, if veterans are upset and disenfranchised—and stories about it are making the rounds in the media for years to come—it hurts military recruitment.

It seems Democrats don’t want to honor soldiers. It appears that they just want to live as cheaply as possible behind the wall of safety those soldiers provide, while giving the country those soldiers fought for away—to those foreign invaders called illegal aliens. Come to think of it, at least one Republican running for President wants to do the same thing.