Friday, October 5, 2007

Be Fair To Our Troops


One of the longest deployed military units in Iraq is the Minnesota National Guard's 1st Brigade Combat Team, 34th Infantry Division. This unit returned the the United States earlier this year and found out that about half of them were not eligible for full GI Bill benefits. These Guardsmen had spent from 20 to 25 months on Active Duty.
Under the rules of the GI Bill, all 2,600 members of the unit qualified for $282.00 a month in benefits as full-time students, but half of them qualified for $800.00 a month. Why the disparity you may ask? Seems that the benefits are broken down into two category's; those that served less than two years and those that served longer than two years. Some of these returning veterans missed the cut-off for the higher benefit by only one day.
Going a bit off topic here but, Hilary Clinton wants to give every baby born in the US $5,000.00 for a college education http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/09/29/clinton-give-every-newborn-5k/ ... and we want to rip-off American Veterans because they missed an arbitrary cut-off date by a matter of days? I know the argument will be, Once we make an exception for one unit, then we will make one for a unit that only served 18 months, then 15 months, etc. I say let's give all returning vets full GI Bill Benefits, even if they only served a 6 month tour of duty. If my taxes have to go up to pay for that, that's fine with me ... I will finally have a tax that I am proud to pay.

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15 comments:

lime said...

that's awful. every one of these soldiers shoudl be given an education at uncle sam's expense. so many of them come from families that coudl never afford to send them and they saw the military as one of their only real options. they have done what has been asked of them now they should be well provided for.

Dardin Soto said...

boooooo Yaaa! I'm with ya paul.... that is such crap. As an ex military man, I can attest to the administrative BS that hampers the boots on the ground. It pisses me off even more that the President (not just Bush, but all the pinheads ever to sit their fat butts in the oval chair) espouse the great and honorable service to Country, but let shit (sorry) like this go on with no moral oversight.....
Man, I was in a good mood too.....

buffalodick said...

I agree with you. For all the money this country has pissed away on far less deserving people, there should be something done about this immediately!

WomanHonorThyself said...

Ooorah!...behind u all the way my friend!

snowelf said...

I totally agree 100%. Any man or woman willing to risk their life for me is worth every penny in my heart.

--snow

Terri@SteelMagnolia said...

YES, TAKE CARE OF OUR TROOPS!!!

David said...

Here! Here! I say the war vets should get FULL benefits no matter the tour length. They and their families should have the best health care, best education, best you name it. Take it out of the Congress member's paychecks!

Anonymous said...

That's terrible. Those men and women deserve that extra pay. What a rip off.

On Hillary's $5,000 to every new baby born, including illegal aliens, a survey says that almost 80% of Americans are AGAINST it.

Anonymous said...

$800.00?? waaaat!?
and $5,000 for every new baby??
if it is opposite, i would not be surprised.

Anonymous said...

Simply put, It's Outrageous!
It's just beyond the pale .. It's horrifying. It's outrageous.
Whats next?
Give rights to the Illegal’s ?

Tapline said...

Paul,
This is not unusual treatment given to our Military members. I do however agree, they should get full educational benefits and additional pay when in combat....stay well......

Superstar said...

This reminds me of my military pay soap box.
~steps up~
I am sickened by the fact that military families are SOO underpayed that most of them are on FDCA. They need food stamps and government subsidies to just get by.

I see men and women getting pay that is not equal to the danger they put themselves in. You couldn't pay me enough to drive a hum-V thru a mine field...yet we think it's ok to only pay our soldiers a $10/hr to?
What is wrong with us?
~steps off soap box~

Jackie said...

I agree with the increase of taxes IF the money is used for the GI Bill Benefits for our military!! We (as in my husband and myself) are reaping the benefits of his education paid for by the GI Bill of the 50's. It's time for a payback!

Paul Champagne said...

lime ... I seem to be agreeing with you an awful lot lately (I need to check my Conservative Credentials).

truth-pain ... Both Senators from Minnesota are now on this and I don't think they will have any problem getting bi-partisan support to solve the problem. But how many instances like this go unreported and unnoticed?

buffalo ... You know they finally scuttled the "bridge to nowhere" in Alaska ... maybe they could use those savings to pay for these soldier's GI Bill Benefits. Probably not ... that money has probably been re-directed to some other worthless pork-barrel project.

woman ... glad you got my back

snow ... sometimes it seems that the troops are only important when they are fighting for us, then when they come home they are forgotten. We can't let this happen.

terri ... Hooo-Raaah ... that's Army for "You Got It Girl"

david ... they can take it out of my paycheck if they like. It would be a tax worth paying.

debbie ... well actually the illegal alien babys would be citizens, but I am also against it.

niki ... the $5000.00 is an idea that Hilary has to give every American child born a head-start. This money would be put into an interest bearing account and when the child grows up they could use it to go to college or for a down payment on a house. A good idea on paper, but who is going to pay for it? Also, it seems like a way to buy votes ... You elect me and I will give you $5000.00.

dd2 ... haven't you been paying attention? They have already given the illegal aliens more rights than we have (and they don't have to go to jury duty).

tapline ... if they are good enough to serve, bleed and sometimes die, they are good enough to get full benefits.

bambi ... and what a fine soap box it is! The Military life is not really that bad. When I first came in the starting pay for an E-1 was $280.00 a month. It is now $1301.00 a month and has been improving every year. Problem is that Military families tend to be larger than civilian ones. And a Private with a family is going to be living in poverty. Same thing holds true in civilian life. If you get married and start a family before you get yourself established in a good job ... you are going to be poor. What needs to happen is that more military housing units must be built (currently, there is not enought "on-post" housing and housing goes by seniority and the people in the lower pay grades that need it most, often go without).

inspired ... I never used my GI bill benefits (of the 80's) but it was nice to know that it was there if I needed it.

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