Use facts when citing Obama 'scandals'

In his letter on March 18, Mr. Hank D'Ambrosio lambastes President Obama for the IRS, Benghazi and, most laughably, the credit downgrade of the U.S. While I vehemently disagree with a number of the president's policies, my disagreements are based on actual facts.

Let's begin with the credit downgrade of the U.S. This quote is from S&P when the downgrade was issued: "The political brinkmanship of recent months highlights what we see as America's governance and policymaking becoming less stable, less effective, and less predictable than what we previously believed."

Let's remember who decided that the historically routine debt ceiling vote was a "hostage worth ransoming" with the threat of a government shutdown. It was congressional Republicans - led by the Tea Party.

As to the IRS "scandal," has anyone read the Treasury Inspector General's report? It shows that the IRS targeted 85 groups whose names included "Tea Party" and "Patriot." Another category of targets with names including "Occupy" and "Progressive" had 202 cases. So much for the scandal that only right-leaning groups were targeted.

Which leaves Benghazi, the bipartisan Senate report concluded that the State Department did not have enough security in place and the CIA did not let the Pentagon know they had a CIA Annex in Libya, which hampered both security planning and rescue efforts. The report revealed that Ambassador Stevens believed he could trust Libyan security and declined two recommendations for more soldiers at the consulate. The report also concluded there was no administration cover-up.

There is a wealth of information available to citizens. You can do the work and read the actual documents - many of which are online - or you can sit on the couch and watch Fox News or MSNBC and simply regurgitate their talking points. I respectfully suggest the former.

Patti Siwicki

Elk Grove Village