Item by Chris Graham
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How could you vote against the new GI Bill that will provide expanded educational benefits to troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan?
It’s a rhetorical question that Fifth District Democratic Party nominee Tom Perriello is asking about Republican incumbent Virgil Goode’s vote against the bill.
“As we honor the Greatest Generation’s sacrifice on D-Day, we must renew our commitment to veterans with a 21st century GI Bill for our soldiers coming home from Iraq and Afghanistan,” Perriellosaid.
“I am shocked by Congressman Goode’s vote against the new GI Bill that would help the very troops he voted to send into battle. That logic may hold in Washington, but not back home in Virginia.”
Goode has said that he opposed the bill as being partisan in nature. He also has raised issue with the way the bill, authored by Virginia Democratic Sen. Jim Webb, uses as its funding source a half-percent tax on individuals making more than $500,000 a year.
“This was a simple choice between supporting our veterans or protecting tax breaks for millionaires,” Perriello said. “Some things are just a matter of right and wrong and Goode was on the wrong side of this one.”
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