BUSHWHACKS

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||

BUSH REGIME FIGHTS EFFORT TO RESTORE VETS' EDUCATION BENEFITS

ABC NEWS BLOTTER - The Bush administration opposes a Democratic effort
to restore full educational benefits for returning veterans, according
to an official's comments last week. Senate Democrats, led by Virginia's
Jim Webb, want the government to pay every penny of veterans'
educational costs, from tuition at a public university to books, housing
and a monthly stipend. Such a benefit was a major feature of the
historic 1944 G.I. Bill, which put more than eight million U.S. soldiers
through college and is now credited by historians as fueling the
expansion of America's middle class in the post-war era. But in recent
years the benefit has dwindled; under the current law, passed in 1985,
veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan can expect Uncle Sam to
cover only 75 percent of their tuition costs. That's not enough, say
Democrats and veterans' advocates. . . Keith Wilson, the VA official who
oversees the education benefits program, told senators last Friday the
proposal would make "administration of this program cumbersome," and its
costs would "tax existing VA resources."

http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/2007/08/administration-.html

||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||