Georgia Democrats criticize McCain on GI Bill

Mon, May 19, 2008 - 5:44 PM

Mon, May 19, 2008 - 6:52 PM

John McCain is at a fundraiser tonight in Savannah, Ga., and Democrats there took the opportunity to hammer him about the GI Bill.

Jane Kidd, the chair of the Democratic Party of Georgia, and Bill Gillespie, a Democrat who is challenging Republican Rep. Jack Kingston called on McCain to support the GI Bill sponsored by Sen. Jim Webb of Virginia.

Webb’s bipartisan bill expands education benefits to veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and pays for it with a tax increase on the wealthiest Americans. It passed the House last week.

“It seems that Senator McCain and President Bush don’t like that bill,” Kidd said in a phone interview Monday. “We feel our vets deserve better.”

Georgia is home to a dozen active military bases.

As noted previously on the Herd, this isn’t the first time McCain has come under fire from Democrats for not supporting Webb's version of the GI Bill.

McCain supports a different bill introduced by Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, which aims to expand educational benefits for armed service personnel who stay in the military. That version died in the Senate.

Both Obama and Clinton support Webb’s version.

-- Amy Dominello