http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/09/cbo-webb-hagel/
May 9th, 2008
New CBO Re****t Proves McCain Is ‘Full Of It’ In His Opposition To
Webb-Hagel GI Bill»
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and the Pentagon have voiced their opposition
to the bipartisan Webb-Hagel GI Bill by spouting fears that “too many
will use it,”
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa****ngton/articles/2008/02/10/gi_bill_falling_short_of_college_tuition_costs/
and it will therefore “harm” the military.
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/06/pentagon-webb-gi-harm/
A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) re****t analyzing the impact of
the GI Bill shows that McCain is indeed “full of it.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/04/30/webb-mccain-is-so-full-of-it/
While the re****t explains that troop retention will decline because
some troops will take advantage of their new education benefits,
http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalradar/2008/05/if-you-try-to-s.html
the loss in retention will be entirely made up for by increased
military recruits: http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/92xx/doc9212/s22.pdf
Literature on the effects of educational benefits on retention suggest
that every $10,000 increase in educational benefits yields a reduction
in retention of slightly more than 1 percentage point.
CBO estimates that S. 22 (as modified) would more than double the
present value of educational benefits for servicemembers at the first
reenlistment point — from about $40,000 to over $90,000 — implying a
16 percent decline in the reenlistment rate, from about 42 percent to
about 36 percent. […]
Educational benefits have been shown to raise the number of military
recruits.
Based on an analysis of the existing literature, CBO estimates that a
10 percent increase in educational benefits would result in an
increase of about 1 percent in high-quality recruits.
On that basis, CBO calculates that raising the educational benefits as
proposed in S. 22 would result in a 16 percent increase in recruits.
Ignoring the conclusion of the CBO re****t, the Army Times prints this
deceptive headline suggesting that the GI Bill will only harm the
military: “CBO: Better GI Bill would cut retention 16%.”
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2008/05/military_gibill_retention_050908w/
As Sen. John Warner (R-VA) has said, the flip side of the impact on
retention is that “putting a big piece of cheese out there will induce
more qualified people to join just to get this. It should be a
tremendous incentive for recruitment.”
http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20080430/pl_politico/9966
If McCain and the Bush administration truly wanted to repair retention
problems, they shouldn’t take benefits away from troops but rather —
as Jon Soltz has said — “focus on the role of contractors, who
continually snatch up troops, offering them up to 10 times their
military pay to do a similar job in Iraq.”
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/05/07/soltz-gi-bill-nonsense/
___________________________________________________
There ya go. Proof that McCain is full of ****.
Harry
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