Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 346, Ed. 1 Friday, July 14, 2017 Page: 4 of 18
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NATIONAL
4A
Friday, July 14, 2017
Denton Record-Chronicle
House to act quickly on measure to expand Gl Bill
benefits to members of the
Guard and Reserve could mean
$2,300 a year more in tuition
than they are receiving now, plus
a bigger housing allowance.
The American Legion, the
nation’s largest veterans’ group,
said the plan would mean a
“new era” for those who served
in uniform.
“Years from now, veterans
who were unable to attend insti-
tutions of higher learning dur-
ing their military service or im-
mediately afterward will be able
to earn degrees and begin re-
warding careers that can lead
our economy” said Charles E.
Schmidt, national commander
of the American Legion. The
group drafted the original GI
Bill of Rights in 1944 that creat-
ed the comprehensive education
benefit for World War II and fu-
ture veterans.
The bill’s lead sponsor is Rep.
Phil Roe, R-Tenn., chairman of
the House Veterans’ Affairs
Committee. He said he would
schedule a committee vote next
week. The No. 2 House leader,
The education benefits
would take effect for enlistees
who begin using their GI Bill
money next year.
Kristofer Goldsmith, 31, said
he believes it would help many
former service members who,
like him, aren’t ready to immedi-
ately enroll in college after their
service. Goldsmith was in the
Army as part of Operation Iraqi
Freedom in 2005, reaching the
rank of sergeant. He returned
home to constant nightmares
and other symptoms of post-
traumatic stress disorder. He
was kicked out of the military
with a general discharge after a
suicide attempt, barring him
from receiving GI benefits.
Now an assistant director for
policy at Vietnam Veterans of
America, Goldsmith advocates
for veterans with PTSD and is
appealing his discharge status.
He’s heading to Columbia Uni-
versity in the fall.
“I feel extremely lucky I have
found my passion in veterans’
advocacy,” Goldsmith said. “But
I’ve taken out tens of thousands
of dollars to go to school. GI ben-
efits are something service
members earn while they serve.
They shouldn’t lose it just be-
cause they aren’t transitioning
back the way the government
wants.”
According to Student Veter-
ans of America, only about half
the 200,000 service members
who leave the military each year
go on to enroll in a college, while
surveys indicate that veterans
often outperform peers in the
classroom.
Veterans of Foreign Wars es-
timates that hundreds of thou-
sands of veterans stand to gain
from the new benefits.
The legislation combines 18
separate House bills, also pro-
viding full GI Bill eligibility to
Purple Heart recipients. Previ-
ously, they had to serve at least
three years. In addition, the bill
would restore benefits if a col-
lege closed in the middle of the
semester, a protection added
when thousands of veterans
were hurt by the collapse of for-
profit college giant ITT Tech.
By Hope Yen
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - House
Republicans and Democrats un-
veiled legislation Thursday that
would provide the biggest ex-
pansion of college aid for mili-
tary veterans in a decade, re-
moving a 15-year time limit to
tap into benefits and increasing
money for thousands in the Na-
tional Guard and Reserve.
The bipartisan agreement is
a sweeping effort to fill coverage
gaps in the post-9/11 GI Bill
amid a rapidly changing job
market.
Building on major legislation
passed in 2008 that guaranteed
a full-ride scholarship to any in-
state public university
similar cash amount for private
college students — the bill gives
veterans added flexibility to en-
roll in college later in life. Veter-
ans would get additional pay-
ments if they complete science,
technology and engineering
courses.
For a student attending a pri-
vate university, the additional
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Charles Dharapak/AP file photo
The Department of Veterans Affairs building is shown in 2013
in Washington. Congressional Republicans and Democrats
have reached initial agreement on the biggest expansion of
college aid for military veterans in a decade.
or a
Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif,
said the House would act quick-
ly to help veterans.
‘We’ll move it out this
month,” McCarthy told The As-
sociated Press.
A similar bill is expected
from Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-
Ga., chairman of the Senate Vet-
erans’ Affairs Committee. The
committee’s top Democrat, Sen.
Jon Tester of Montana, said he
was encouraged by the biparti-
san plan.
Veterans’ issues have been
one of the few areas where Re-
publicans and Democrats have
found some common ground,
unlike health care, taxes and
other issues.
CBO report: Trump’s budget
doesn’t balance federal ledger
Panel calls for review of opioids
break of HIV and hepatitis C
in southern Indiana linked to
sharing needles to inject the
pills.
users start with pills diverted
to the black market. Crush-re-
sistant pills and other restric-
tions can have unintended
consequences, shifting use to
heroin and illicit fentanyl.
The epidemic’s broad reach
into rural and suburban
America “has blurred the for-
merly distinct social boundary
between use of prescribed
opioids and use of heroin and
other illegally manufactured
ones,” the report says.
The authors say it’s possible
to stem the crisis without de-
nying opioids to patients
whose doctors prescribe them
responsibly. But long-term use
of opioids by people with
chronic pain should be dis-
couraged because it increases
dangers of overdose and ad-
diction.
By Carla K. Johnson
AP Medical Writer
The U.S. Food and Drug
Administration should review
the safety and effectiveness of
all opioids and consider the
real-world impacts the power-
ful painkillers have, not only
on patients, but also on fami-
lies, crime and the demand for
heroin.
That’s the conclusion of a
sweeping report Thursday
from the National Academies
of Sciences, Engineering and
Medicine. It urges the FDA to
bolster a public health ap-
proach that already has result-
ed in one painkiller being pull-
ed from the market. Last
week, the maker of opioid
painkiller Opana ER with-
drew its drug at the FDAs re-
quest following a 2015 out-
By Andrew Taylor
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - A new
government analysis of Presi-
dent Donald Trump’s budget
plan says it wouldn’t come close
to balancing the federal ledger
like the White House has prom-
ised.
“Our recommendation is
for a much more systematic
approach, integrating public
health decision-making into
all aspects of opioid review
and approval,” said Dr. Aaron
Kesselheim of Harvard Medi-
cal School, a member of the re-
port committee. “It would be
an ambitious undertaking.”
The report details how two
intertwining epidemics — pre-
scription painkillers and hero-
in — led to the worst addiction
crisis in U.S. history and pro-
vides a plan for turning back
the tide of overdose deaths.
Prescribed, legal drugs are
a gateway to illicit drugs for
some, the report says. Other
U.S. Presi-
dent Don-
ald Trump
waves as
he arrives
for a
Thursday
meeting
in Paris.
■
/-*» ~-
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f //
Thursday’s Congressional
Budget Office report says
Trump’s budget, if followed to
the letter, would result in a $720
billion deficit at the end of 10
years instead of the slight sur-
plus promised.
CBO said Trump’s budget
would reduce the deficit by a to-
tal of $3.3 trillion over 10 years
instead of the $5.6 trillion deficit
cut promised by the White
House.
The nonpartisan scorekeeper
estimated that deficits in each of
the coming 10 years will exceed
the $585 billion in red ink post-
ed last year.
CBO says Trump relied on far
too optimistic predictions of
economic growth and that
Trump’s rosy projections are the
chief reason his budget doesn’t
balance as promised.
“Nearly all of that [deficit]
difference arises because the ad-
ministration projects higher
revenue projections — stem-
ming mainly from a projection
of faster economic growth,” CBO
said.
Markus
Schreiber/AP
tions predict annual GDP
growth averaging 1.9 percent.
“The CBO report shows that
the president built his budget on
fantasy projections,” said Rep.
John Yarmuth of Kentucky, the
top Democrat on the House
Budget Committee.
Trump’s May budget submis-
sion proposed jarring, politically
unrealistic cuts to the social safe-
ty net for the poor and a swath of
other domestic programs. Many
of its recommendations were
deemed dead on arrival and are
being ignored by Republicans
controlling Congress.
CBO also said the Trump
budget contained too little detail
to accurately predict its effects
on the economy.
The White House promised
that its juiced-up economic pro-
jections will produce $2.1 trillion
in deficit reduction, mostly from
overhauling the tax code and re-
ducing the burden regulations
have on the economy. But
Trump’s tax overhaul plan is so
far so sketchy that it can fit on a
single page.
The analysis came as the ad-
ministration and Republicans
controlling the House are strug-
gling to unite Republicans be-
hind an alternative congressio-
nal budget plan that’s a prereq-
uisite for a hoped-for tax reform
effort this fall.
The stakes on completing a
budget are high for the Trump
administration. Budget Director
Mick Mulvaney said Thursday
that the administration’s plan to
cut taxes hinges on completing a
2018 budget, a procedural re-
quirement so the tax cuts can be
passed without having to rely on
Democratic support in the Sen-
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“The tax reform concepts rely
almost entirely on the budget
resolution passing,” Mulvaney
said at a breakfast with report-
ers.
Mulvaney said discussion
continues among House law-
makers about fashioning a pack-
age of cuts from so-called man-
datory programs that can win
support from both conservative
and centrist Republicans.
Trump’s budget predicts that
the U.S. economy will soon
ramp up to annual growth in
gross domestic product of 3 per-
cent; CBO’s long-term projec-
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Parks, Scott K. Denton Record-Chronicle (Denton, Tex.), Vol. 113, No. 346, Ed. 1 Friday, July 14, 2017, newspaper, July 14, 2017; Denton, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth1131386/m1/4/: accessed June 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu.; .