You remember the new GI Bill? The one that John McCain opposed because it was TOO GENEROUS to our troops fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan.

McCain can remind us again and again how he was a POW, so this proves that he cares about the troops, and I suspect he’ll remind us of that fact yet again in response to this latest criticism from Biden, but it doesn’t negate the fact that there are American service members in Iraq and Afghanistan who aren’t getting more benefits because of John McCain. Tell them why John McCain didn’t think their sacrifice merited all the benefits Senator Webb’s bill was offering them. The Republicans like to talk all patriotic, but when you put their patriotism into practice, it doesn’t look very patriotic at all. Make John McCain explain exactly what constitutes “too generous” for our troops?

From CBS:

“George Bush initially opposed it, John McCain stood with him and he called Jim Webb’s effort, quote, too generous. Ladies and gentlemen, if John McCain had his way on that G.I. Bill, those military personnel who served two tours in Iraq or Afghanistan would not qualify for the same benefits that anyone in the ‘regular Army or Marine corps’ did.” “Ask yourself the question, who supports our troops? Who supports those National Guard personnel? Who supports those reservists who make up 40 percent of the people?” asked Biden, and turned to Gov. Ed Rendell, D-Pa., in the crowd. “I don’t have to tell you that, Governor. You see them dispatched every day from your state, and you’re there like I am when that flag-draped coffin comes home for some.” As he speech went on, Biden’s tone turned from critical to one of disgust. “I am sick and tired of this Republican garbage,” Biden said to applause from the crowd of 3,000 supporters. “I am sick and tired of being told that we don’t care.” While the McCain campaign called Biden’s comments “absurd”, a McCain campaign aide speaking on background, when asked if Biden was accurate in saying that McCain had called the G.I. Bill ‘too generous’, said “I don’t know.” McCain, who is a veteran, said last spring that he feared the bill would deter soldiers from re-enlisting.

John McCain didn’t even bother showing up to vote for the GI Bill when it came up on the Senate floor. Here is what Obama had to say at the time: