I have heard all of the promises made by the new (thinks he is going to be speaker of the house) John Boehner, he promises to return all discretionary spending to the levels of 2008. The NEW GI Bill is not discretionary it is now an entitlement, the new presumptive Agent Orange diseases · Ischemic Heart Disease Hairy Cell and other B-Cell Leukemia and Parkinson's Disease which were just approved after the recent Senate hearing on September 23, 2010.
Veterans benefits are a PROMISE something your great WAR President George W. Bush campaigned on during 2004 I do believe his slogan was a
"Promise Made Is A Promise Kept" well America's veterans expect you to keep these promises.
This nation sent us to war, we paid the price, in body parts, time in service, service in combat zones, recent wars and this nations wars going back to WW1, yes we still have one live WW1 veterans still alive Frank Buckles.
Yes military service is all voluntary now and has been since 1974 when the last of the nations draftees were let out of the military. Now about only 1% of all Americans will ever serve in the military, but if you break the promises to these men and women, good luck finding volunteers for your military of the future.
We are not discretionary spending, we are required spending, as General Colin Powell stated using the pottery barn rule (you broke it you bought it) the most recent number I have seen is there are about 3.5 million disabled veterans and their surviving spouses in receipt of compensation. These type of compensation payments have been made to Americans veterans since the Revolutionary War, and we expect they will be paid to veterans of all American wars from now into the unforeseen future. It is a debt that MUST be paid.
It is a cost of war, and some of these 20 year olds from the Iraq War and Afghanistan War will probably still be drawing benefits into 2070 and beyond. Who knows what more wars this nation will decide to get into between now and then, but the PROMISE must be kept.
I realize the most gains in benefits occurred during the 110th and 111th Congress during Speaker Pelosi and the democratic majority.