What do you know, McCain really is ‘full of it’

May 9, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, John McCain talked about the importance of increasing the size of the U.S. military. To entice more volunteers, he said, the government should focus on incentives: “[O]ne of the things we ought to do is provide [the troops with] significant educational benefits in return for serving.”

A few days later, McCain announced that he opposes a bipartisan measure to renew and expand the GI Bill for a new generation of veterans. Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.), the leading proponent of the modernized GI Bill, called McCain out.

McCain’s argument is that if the government makes college more affordable for the troops, they might be inclined to leave the military, rather than re-enlist. Webb, who said McCain is “full of it,” has argued that a) the troops deserve better educational benefits; and b) it might help with military recruiting if people knew they could go to college after their service.

Who’s right? Faiz at TP reports on the latest Congressional Budget Office analysis, which sets the record straight.

While the report explains that troop retention will decline because some troops will take advantage of their new education benefits, the loss in retention will be entirely made up for by increased military recruits:

“Literature on the effects of educational benefits on retention suggest that every $10,000 increase in educational benefits yields a reduction in retention of slightly more than 1 percentage point. CBO estimates that S. 22 (as modified) would more than double the present value of educational benefits for servicemembers at the first reenlistment point — from about $40,000 to over $90,000 — implying a 16 6 percent decline in the reenlistment rate, from about 42 percent to about 36 percent. […]

“Educational benefits have been shown to raise the number of military recruits. Based on an analysis of the existing literature, CBO estimates that a 10 percent increase in educational benefits would result in an increase of about 1 percent in high-quality recruits. On that basis, CBO calculates that raising the educational benefits as proposed in S. 22 would result in a 16 percent increase in recruits.”

Yep, McCain really is full of it.

McCain will clearly need a new argument. As recently as a week ago, McCain suggested he’d prefer the troops not be eligible for an improved GI Bill until after six years of service. (If you enlisted in 2003, and have completed multiple tours in Iraq, McCain’s vision would still force you to wait until next year to qualify for more generous college aid.)

Fortunately, the CBO highlights the ways in which this would benefit the Armed Forces — by boosting recruiting — but I’d just add that McCain’s “retention” argument has always struck me as callous and unethical.

A few weeks ago, Wesley Clark and Jon Soltz explained why McCain’s approach is nonsense.

First, it is morally reprehensible to fix the system so that civilian life is unappealing to service members, in an attempt to force them to re-up. Education assistance is not a handout, it is a sacred promise that we have made for generations in return for service.

Second, falling military recruitment numbers are just as serious as retention problems. To send the message that this nation will not help you make the most of your life will dissuade a large number of our best and brightest from choosing military service over other career options.

This week, former Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner (R-Va.) added, “I think this argument that it’s going to hurt retention is very thin and tenuous, very thin and tenuous. The flip side of that is, putting a big piece of cheese out there will induce more qualified people to join just to get this. It should be a tremendous incentive for recruitment.”

And thanks to the CBO, we know Warner is right and McCain is wrong.

So, should we expect McCain to reverse course and finally sign onto the bipartisan measure? I’m not holding my breath.

This should be all over the place, meaning well-publicized. I hope the news gets out. McCain is an enormous idiot and hypocrite in this case. “I love our military, now please go out and risk your life for us but don’t expect anything in return – no education, no healthcare (even for veterans), etc.” What an ignorant ass.

And that’s *aside* from the fact that we don’t need to increase our military budget at all. It’s already roughly 48% of the entire world’s military budget. Are we at war with everybody else?

  • McPhony isn’t going to sign anything—unless it’s an executive order dissolving Congress, padding the Courts, and authorizing summary executions without benefit of trial for all those who dare to reject his most-high, grand-poobah-esque, antiquarian magnificence.

    And I thought there wasn’t anything—well, at least anything bipedal—that could make Bush look good….

  • McCain is seriously trying to sell the argument that he wants to limit the post-military options for people in the military because that will force them to stay longer? Seriously? This sort of thing is why I cannot understand why anybody fears this guy as a politician. That argument, besides being wrongheaded, won’t sell well no matter who the hell you are trying to sell it to. And basically all of his arguments amount to the same kind of tin-eared absurdity. This guy is toast.

  • So, should we expect McCain to reverse course and finally sign onto the bipartisan measure? I’m not holding my breath.

    Why the doubt? He’s a skilled flipflopper. If he weren’t so old he’d be in that youtube video of guys backflipping into their own trousers.

  • If we want to increase the size of the military we should

    PAY THEM MORE

  • I’d rather be an uneducated hard-working white American than a black Muslim terrorist who wants to invite Hamas to the White House!

    (Note: the preceding was satire)

  • McCain will do yet another flipflop, and the media will ignore it, and/or they will repeat (unchallenged, of course) a cheesy McCain assertion that the “new” bill he is now supporting is a big improvement over the old one he opposed.

    McMaverick would never hurt the troops!

  • I call on every American to donate a 1.99 pair of flip flops and send them to McCain.
    write on one side “I voted for George” and on the Other”I didn’t vote for George”, or pick a favorite McCain about-face statement.

    If Romans had John McCain, they wouldn’t have had devotions to Janus.

  • Full of it right up to his eyeballs. Increase educational benefits to enhance recruitment, but oppose increased benefits to prevent reenlistment defections. What a perfect politicians waffle, but now it turns out that more educational benefits are recruitment/defection neutral. The man is an absolute moron in the best Bush tradition. We would literally be getting a third Bush term not only in policy matters, but stupidity too.

  • Oh pleassssse Hill – don’t drag this out.

    Bill, you need to talk to her, Bill..Bill???? Hello!

    Jeebus.

  • “If the government makes college more affordable for the troops, they might be inclined to leave the military, rather than re-enlist.”

    This the military equivalent of preferring women to be barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen. McCain wants troops destitute, unmotivated and worthy of only serving in the military. Sen. McCain wants to ensure that the military is a dead-end option for those who serve … and Rummy was saying the Iraqi opposition were the dead-enders.

  • Because implying that only people who don’t have college degrees enlist in the military isn’t the least bit elitist.

    And yet when John Kerry made a comment that some people interpreted as meaning people in the military were stupid, the fRight Wing went to Defcon 2. Looks like it’s ok to say they’re uneducated and should stay that way.

    Where’s Tom Cleaver? We need another one of his McCainiac smack downs.

  • What did McCain say NO too?

    Every single vetenran benefit package that has come before congress, EVERY SINGLE ONE of them – check his voting records. Veterans have been and are NOTHING but an entitlement program to McCain, nothing but a pork barrel program to McCain.

    He has VOTED against every single one that has come before congress – check the records.

    Now, suddenly – he is going to start voting for them? Check his records, check his records – McCain has NEVER voted in favor of veterans – Never, EVER, NOT ONCE.

  • This is a very typical attitude of the wealthy. It has always been so. There are the wealthy, the profesional and well off merchant classes, and then the ‘rabble”. In other words, the rest of us. The people who build their homes, grow their food, drive their trucks, install their alarm systems, clean their pools, police their neighborhoods,etc., are just nondescript entities to them. We mean nothing to them. Why should government funds be diverted from the industries that make that make them rich? What do they care about public education, public health care, clean and safe city streets, and so on? They get nothing out of what benefits the general public, and they care even less.

  • Part of the official line of BS (can’t remember whether it was McCain’t himself or someone else who peddled it) against the new GI Bill was “we’ll spend all that money training them and they’ll turn around and quit after 2 yrs, to go to college”. Well, first of all, the enlistment contracts are not for 2 yrs, but 4. And then, even while you’re in reserves, they can still call on you and send you back to the front — possibly disrupting your education. But, even more important, we’re already losing them, fully trained by us, as soon as they can get away… to private contractors (mercenatry armies like Blackwater). If you don’t offer them decent benefits, then, of course, they’ll go for double pay, hoping to save enough to offset it.

  • McCain’s problem is he never had to worry about the GI Bill and educational benefits. He got all that and more, up front. So now he can cut the BS real easy. Just propose that all recruits get the same benefit he got. They get a free ride through four years of college in exchange for a six year commitment after they complete college. Simple, no?

    • Comments are closed.