Over at the McCain blog, McCain National Veterans’ Director Lang Sias says that Barack Obama lied to the VFW:
Barack Obama also mischaracterized Senator McCain’s position on the "GI Bill For the 21st Century," claiming that McCain opposed the bill because it was "too generous." In fact, John McCain opposed the initial version of the bill because it failed to address the number one education request of career service members and their families--the freedom to transfer their benefits to a spouse or a child. It also did nothing to retain the young officers and enlisted leaders who form the backbone of our all-volunteer force. Once the bill was improved, Senator McCain was proud to support it.
Of course this is not true.
In fact, McCain never mentioned "transferability" as an issue until well after the bill passed without his help or, even his attendance at the vote. What he said before he found the "transferability" fig leaf to cover his shame at abandoning the troops was this:
The most important difference between our two approaches is that Senator Webb offers veterans who served one enlistment the same benefits as those offered veterans who have re-enlisted several times. Our bill has a sliding scale that offers generous benefits to all veterans, but increases those benefits according to the veteran's length of service. It is important to do that because, otherwise, we will encourage more people to leave the military after they have completed one enlistment.
Of course his "they'll leave the military if we give them too much" canard was A) proven to be a non-issue by a CBO study (the military would gain as many troops as it lost) and B) showed a great disrespect for our troops, as I argued elsewhere, by suggesting that they serve only for mercenary reasons.
But look at what McCain was saying. He was saying, quite literally, that Webb's bill would give too much money to soldiers too soon in their career. There is no other way to read that than the way that Barack Obama did: John McCain thought the bill was too generous.
Update: Here's a list of the groups that supported the 21st Century G.I. Bill:
Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America (IAVA)
The Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW)
The American Legion
The Military Officers’ Association of America (MOAA)
Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA)
AMVETS
The Air Force Sergeants Association (AFSA)
The Enlisted Association of the National Guard of the United States (EANGUS)
The Student Veterans of America (SVA)
The Partnership for Veterans’ Education
Disabled American Veterans (DAV)