Today the Sun-Times' editorial board came out in support of Sen. Jim Webb's (D-VA) legislation to modernize the G.I. Bill. The proposal (which passed the Senate last week) would offer increased benefits to U.S. soldiers returning from today's battlefields. Specifically, It would finance their education at a four-year college and provide them with a $1,000 bonus for every three years served. The measure is now pending in the House as part of the larger war funding bill. Meanwhile, President Bush has threatened to veto Webb's legislation, citing his preference for a separate, GOP-sponsored measure that features more restrictive education benefits.
The argument for Webb's G.I. Bill is essentially a moral one: our country owes a greater debt to veterans than is it currently paying. There are also practical considerations: our armed forces are increasingly stretched thin and the proposal would create better incentives for enlistment. Furthermore, the Sun-Times points to the potential economic benefit of supporting the legislation:
The original GI Bill, in the years after World War II, helped veterans forge careers and made our nation stronger.
For every dollar spent on those veterans, the government recouped $5 to $12 in taxes paid by college graduates with higher incomes, according to the Congressional Research Service.
Assuming such results could be replicated, the estimated $2 billion cost of modernizing the G.I. Bill should be though as a long-term stimulus plan -- not simply a one-time pay-off to returning soldiers.
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