Why is McCain being targeted for opposing vets college aid bill?

Hampton,Va.(HFR:WASHINGTON) - Democrats and their allies are ready to convert Sen. John McCain's stance on college aid for military veterans into a presidential campaign cause. McCain, the all-but-nominated Republican presidential candidate, opposes a Democratic-backed bill that would significantly expand the breadth of education benefits for veterans, first adopted for those returning from World War II. Democrats want the proposal included in a war spending bill the Senate is scheduled to vote on this week. Sen. Barack Obama, McCain's most likely general election opponent, already has raised objections to McCain's resistance. And on Tuesday, a veterans' group that has been critical of the war in Iraq is launching an ad in Washington to pressure McCain to change his mind. By taking issue with McCain on the subject of veterans, Democrats hope to weaken one of his biggest assets--his personal biography as a former Navy pilot who became a prisoner of the North Vietnamese. and endured torture at the hands of his captors. The legislation, sponsored by Democratic Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia and Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, also veterans of Vietnam, would guarantee full tuition payments to veterans at any public school in their home state. Its expected cost is $52 billion over 10 years. McCain says the legislation is too expensive and has proposed his own version, which would increase the monthly benefit available to most veterans to $1,500 from $1,100. It would not offer the equivalent of a full scholarship. The ad by VoteVets.org Action Fund, features Iraq and Afghanistan veterans noting that both McCain and President Bush oppose the bill. "McCain thinks covering a fraction of our education is enough," one veteran says. Another one, pictured recovering from head wounds, adds in a voiceover: "We didn't give a fraction in Iraq. We gave 100 percent." http://www.votevets.org/news?id=0139 Thanks to a fellow Yahoo fan who recommended this site.. "I have great respect for John McCain's service to this country and I know he loves it dearly and honors those who serve," Obama said. "But he is one of the few senators of either party who oppose this bill because he thinks it's too generous. I couldn't disagree more."

Public Comments

1. Because McCain has voted against all vet bills.
2. because obama wants you to target him?
3. because he is a hypocrite and a war monger and people need to understand that
4. I believe Senator McCain wouldn't vote for it because it had tons of pork attached to it. Nothing in Congress gets passed without pork.
5. Because the bill is full of pork. And your Obama handler has told you Obama bots to spam Yahoo answers with this.
6. This video shows the condemned terrible conditions that soldier must live in after a 15 month tour in Afghanistan, thanks war hero. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=46vYZFU1Dew
7. cause he didn't bother to show up for this important Veteran benefits bill.
8. I am a veteran and think McCains bill is more reasonable- college is expensive but none of us was promised a full free ride just for doing 3-4 yrs. It is like the VA, we were told we would get services if we got injured on duty or if we retired NOT for 2,3,4 yrs of service yet somehow that got expanded and now the VA has a hard time getting the job done for those in need because they have to divert resources to those who shouldnt be recieving the benefit. What the dems dont tell you is that vets with 30% or more disability can get a degree paid for completely as well as a monthly stipend- I know first hand I hate the election year political games and the fact that so many fall for it.
9. Because it makes him seem like a war monger.
10. The central issue here is that we appear to be becoming a society that is fractured along all sorts of identity issues, seeking favors for our own, rather than coming up with ideas about what resource expenditures will benefit the greatest number of people. In McCain's case, we argue that he should be president because he is a decorated solider who suffered in a POW camp, and therefore deserves special consideration (as President no less). Soldiers deserve educational benefits because they're soliders (not very meaningful if you ask me). There are many other groups seeking rights for their own as well; I'm certain you can think of some. One of the arguments for expanding benefits is that educational benefits are rather unevenly (and unfairly) distributed among soldiers. Depending on when you went in, for how long and what specialty you were in, you may or may not get educational benefits. You may not have given this any thought, but many people who served in the military between the Vietnam war and Desert Storm (about 1975-1990) didn't get much in the way of educational benefits, and they don't qualify for Veteran's preference in Federal hiring (I'm one of these people). So to repeat, one of the things I find detestable in American society is this tendency to slice-and-dice society along all sorts of lines, giving favors to some and not to others. On the other hand, in the recent past, most ex-soldiers didn't get ed benefits until after 4 years of service minimum. I don't see why this standard cannot remain. McCain doesn't have a good voting record regarding veterans' issues generally. He seems to have a very old-school, stingy, punitive attitude towards soldiers and their benefits. Much like somebody who successfully endured a POW camp, he thinks that everybody else should toughen up too. Most of us wouldn't recommend POW camps as a form of character-building, but this value lurks behind a lot of the adulation McCain receives, and, I believe, his own self-justification. It is this harshness that worries me, because it gives me the sense that he doesn't really value human life all that much. He is pro-military though, and I think we should expect that if he becomes president, that he will try to reinstate the military draft. He is too old to appreciate how the world has changed since his military service, and he is too spoiled, having married a very wealthy woman, and having received the many gov't benefits that congressmen receive, to understand what it means to be needy. And he seems to value suffering in a rather sadistic way.