My First Post Ever - GI Bill

Welcome to The Arse's first blog entry ever. Having landed an internship in Greensboro with the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (which I am completely stoked about), I find myself living with my parents for the first time in 5 or 6 years and will thus be consumed with boredom and the overwhelming desire to speak about politics, policy and economics on higher plane than anyone here in Greensboro can offer. Just last night, having forgotten that I was no longer surrounded by graduate students, I politely corrected a young lady about a misconception surrounding the housing crisis espoused by many conservative opponents to any sort of housing bailout. I explained to her that, actually, individuals in low-income neighborhoods are much more likely to be adversely effected by the housing crisis because they are more likely to have poor credit and take out subprime loans on properties that are not likely to appreciate. Therefore, they are stuck making payments in excess of their property value as their interest outstrips their property appreciation. Instead of debating the merits of my points, she looked at me funny and walked away. That was the point when I realized I needed to start a blog to vent my nerdy pursuit of policy and not heap it on poor unsuspecting drunk people in Greensboro, North Carolina that make misinformed comments.

So anyway, on to my first meaningful topic: the new GI Bill proposed by Sen. Jim Webb is a subject that should garner much more press than it does (If any of the readers of this entry were in Social Insurance with me, then you will realize I am stealing most of this from the mouth of Dr. Wenger, but I'm cool with that). The previous GI Bill was passed in the wake of WWII in order to provide a leg up to war veterans. Benefits of the GI Bill included increased access to home loans and business loans and paid for college tuition. However, this bill primarily benefited white veterans as minorities still faced barriers to college education and housing discrimination legislation was not passed until 1968 (Housing Discrimination) and 1976 (Community Reinvestment).
The primary difference between Sen. Webb's bill and the previous GI Bill is that the American armed service today is a volunteer force. Minorities and the poor are disproportionately represented in today's force, whereas the force in WWII was overwhelmingly white and of all economic backgrounds. Therefore, the new GI Bill would have the opposite effect of benefiting minorities and the disadvantaged.
Senator John McCain and President Bush are opposed to Senator Webb's bill. They argue that this would drastically deplete America's fighting force as soldiers would leave the service to take advantage of their benefits.
Senator Obama, who supports the bill, and Senator McCain have recently traded very charged comments concerning this bill, briefly bringing the national spotlight to the bill before Senator Clinton's assassination remarks consumed the political media. Needless to say, I am looking forward to this debate over the coming months. Firstly, because I honor our veterans and I am very anxious to reward them for their service. But also, I look forward to Senator Obama and Democratic candidates for the House and Senate nationwide arguing on behalf of our troops while Senator McCain and other doomed Republican candidates oppose it.