The President and some of his Republican colleagues. including Senator McCAIN. are opposed to providing increased educational opportunities to todays generation of veterans because they fear it will discourage men and women currently serving from reenlisting. I find it highly disturbing that the President and his colleagues would withhold these much needed benefits to those who have served our country so admirably. and I would advise them that the quickest way to fix our militarys retention problem would be to put an end to the misguided Iraq war that has so seriously damaged morale. Another provision that I strongly support provides $675 million to assist refugees. with the bulk of that money going to address the growing humanitarian crisis in Iraq. I asked the President to include $1.5 billion in his budget for increased U.S. spending in the region. increased U.S. contributions to United Nations appeals for Iraqi refugees. and increased bilateral assistance for our allies. such as Jordan. that are struggling to deal with huge numbers of Iraqi refugees within their borders. Unfortunately this request was denied. and I am very pleased that I was able to work with my Democratic colleagues to see to it that some of these funds were made available in the Supplemental. No matter what we do here today. the President has made it clear that he intends to keep 160.000 troops in Iraq as long as he is in office.
Keywords matched
refugees