GI Bill costs are worth it, vets groups say

GI Bill costs are worth it, vets groups say

By Rick Maze - Staff writer
Posted : Tuesday May 13, 2008 13:03:28 EDT

Two veterans groups — the nation’s largest and one of the newest — are urging lawmakers to weigh the cost of improved veterans’ benefits against the cost of America’s current wars.

“The GI Bill is a cost of war as much as any other expenditure,” said Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan War Veterans, founded in 2004. “Any member of Congress who votes for a $170 billion war bill and then votes against the GI Bill is nickel-and-diming our troops. Veterans of all generations will be outraged by that decision.”

Marty Conatser, national commander of the American Legion, said that when the Legion fought in 1944 for the original World War II GI Bill, “even some veterans’ groups complained that it would break the treasury.”

“Instead, the GI Bill transformed the economy and has been widely hailed as the greatest domestic legislation Congress has ever passed,” said Conatser, whose organization has 2.7 million members.
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