Allen West Praises G.I. Bill in Same Week He Calls Student Loans Communist

Last week, we told you about Allen West's assertion that federal student loans are communist, something found "in a book written by Marx or Engels called The Communist Manifesto." He said in a video posted June 14 that "it's called the state control of education."

Well, two days after that video was posted, he said something else about federal student loans -- they're glorious:

That great generation, that generation that when they came back from World War II and Korea, some of them went, used the G.I. Bill, some of them went out and became law enforcement officers. Once upon a time on Capital Hill you had 75 percent to 85 percent of the individuals who served as congressmen and senators had served in uniform. Today that number's less than 11 percent.

He said this at the annual Florida FOP conference in West Palm Beach -- he also complained about veterans "living in the woods" in St. Lucie County ("That's how horrible our county has become"), touted his military service and the flag of This Great American Republic, and used the phrase "each and every one of you" about 4,000 times.

But this business about the G.I. Bill raises a lot of questions -- the first being, how socialist is Allen West, right? The G.I. Bill gave student financial aid but also gave out government-overseen mortgages and loans to returning soldiers -- things West, when he's talking about anyone else, thinks are evidence of creeping Marxist, progressive, insidious, blah blah blah.

When Obama (actually, Congress) gives students loans to people now, it's a "horrific abuse of our college students." But when he's trying to win over True American Patriots, it's just one way of getting more soldiers into Congress, because who wouldn't want that? It's certainly not the first time he thinks the military should get an exception from his "defense" of the Constitution -- he thinks the military should be able to abduct American citizens and detain them indefinitely too.

West wants to have it both ways -- when it's convenient, he'll yell about strictly interpreting the Constitution and call people socialists. But when it'll earn him points, he's all about government programs that help the populations he likes.