DiversityInc - October 2008

ports a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens.

“Work with Mexico. Obama believes we need to do more to promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration.”

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

ders in an expedited manner. Governors of border states will be required to certify that the border is secure.”

McCain said he would make it a federal offense to hire undocumented workers and would work with the Department of Homeland Security to prosecute employers who do so.

ON VETERAN CARE

★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★★

Among issues key to veterans—and members of the military now—is the amount of time troops spend deployed compared with the amount of time troops spend at home, in what is called Dwell Time.

Last year, Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., proposed a bill in the Senate that would have required troops who are deployed abroad to have an equal amount of Dwell Time home with their families as they’ve spent in action. Webb’s proposal, which ultimately failed in the Senate by a 56-to- 44 margin ( 60 votes are needed to move a bill forward in the Senate), was a direct response to an Army Mental Health Advisory Team survey, which revealed that military personnel with more than one deployment had much higher rates of acute stress than did troops who only served one tour, according to a report on the blog PTSD Combat: Winning the War Within.

The report says the length of deployment and extended time away from home and family caused the most noncombat stress.

When Webb proposed the bill, McCain said it was constitutionally wrong for Congress to be dictating military policy while the military was engaged in active combat.

“I know that my friend and fellow veteran, Sen. Jim Webb, an honorable man who takes his responsibility to veterans very seriously, has offered legislation with very generous benefits. I respect and admire his position, and I would never suggest that he has anything other than the best of intentions to honor the service of deserving veterans,” McCain said. “Both Sen. Webb and I are united in our deep appreciation for the men and women who risk their lives so that the rest of us may be secure in our freedom. And I take a backseat to no one in my affection, respect and devotion to veterans. And I will not accept from Sen. Obama—who did not feel it was his responsibility to serve our country in uniform—any lectures on my regard for those who did.

“The most important difference between our two approaches is that Sen. Webb offers veterans who served one enlistment the same benefits as those offered veterans who have re-enlisted several times,” McCain said. “Our bill has a sliding scale that offers generous benefits to all veterans, but increases those benefits according to the veteran’s length of service. I think it is important to do that because, otherwise, we will encourage more people to leave the military after they have completed one enlistment. At a time when the United States military is fighting in two wars, and as we finally are beginning the long-overdue and very urgent necessity of increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps, one study estimates that Sen. Webb’s bill will reduce retention rates by 16 percent.”

Webb, in an interview last year with CNN, admitted that since it appeared the Bush administration was predicting a long-term presence in Iraq, it was important for troops who would serve multiple deployments to have as much time at home and abroad. He dismissed charges from his opponents, including McCain, that offering the time away would deplete the military, as it’s currently constituted.