IAVA and the GI Bill 2.1

Y’all remember that Operator Dan warned about the GI Bill that Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America rammed through Congress last year with their cohorts in the Democrat Party. Well, it seems that IAVA has finally seen the error of their ways. of course they blame Congress, but it was nothing that the keen eyes of Operator Dan hadn’t spotted.

For hundreds of thousands of veterans across the country, the New GI Bill is an amazing benefit. However, without swift action from Congress, vets currently enrolled at some private schools may find their tuition coverage coming up short. We’ve heard from a number of IAVA Member Veterans about this problem, and we’re sharing your concerns with Congress.

This loophole is unacceptable, but there’s an easy fix. And that’s why IAVA is pushing Congress to secure a provision that restores the interval pay (“break-pay”) between the fall and spring semesters and grandfathers in veterans currently attending the small number of private schools who are impacted.

Here’s a little history for those just tuning in; Republicans had questions about the new GI Bill and no one was willing to answer those questions, so Republicans voted against the GI Bill in 2008. IAVA manufactured a “scorecard” on Congressional voting records which centered around the GI Bill and, of course, Republicans came up short – from that sprang stories about how good Democrats are for veterans and the military. Then came the 2008 elections and Republicans lost.

As soon as Democrats took over the White House and Congress, Paul Reickhoff started making noises about capping the new GI Bill because Veterans Affairs couldn’t roll out the program fast enough and they were having trouble finding money for it. So Reickoff’s solution was to cap benefits and cut veterans out of the program, so DVA could look like they were doing their jobs.

Lo and behold, there was massive confusion, tuition wasn’t getting to the student-veterans and DVA launched some stop-gap programs and money was flying back and forth in such a confusing manner that I lost interest It was just more satisfying to make fun of Shinseki.

So last year, IAVA shoved this GI Bill 2.0 through Congress despite the warnings. Even the fricken DVA warned us about it. But it got passed any-damn-way because the Democrats had to show us how much they care about veterans, and Republicans got reamed in 2008, they weren’t about to “vote against veterans” again.

Now this new bill creates new loopholes and IAVA is trying to get them plugged…they created the damn things. But this is their way to screw over the Republicans in the next reportcard if the Republican Congress can’t act on it while all of these balanced budget balls are in the air.

In the meantime, we know you need answers. And we’ll do our best to help.

Help? Please stop being helpful, Paul Reickhoff and Tom Tarantino.

Category: Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America