By Col. Grey Medinger

The current Obama administration has been consistent in one area: Failure to hold anyone accountable for its failures. And in this failure, I hold Congress just as accountable as the president. Congress does nothing to force the issues when the president oversteps his authority.

Sadly, this failure is beginning to cost this country dearly in lives lost from Benghazi to Charleston and, most recently, San Francisco. Kate Steinle was murdered in San Francisco by an illegal alien who had been deported five times but was released to commit this atrocious crime. Interestingly, President Obama has failed to comment on this atrocious death. Nine members of a church in Charleston were heinously murdered by Dillon Roof. Roof was able to purchase a weapon because of a failure of the gun control system. The system failed to show that Roof had a prior drug charge that should have prevented him from purchasing a gun. The IRS admitted to targeting the Tea Party inappropriately. It has since come to light that the emails associated with inappropriate action have been deleted, despite the congressional order to save these files. At this point, no one is being held accountable. It is just business as usual. The IRS continues to fail to hold Al Sharpton accountable for his failure to pay more than $4.5 million in delinquent taxes. Where would you and I be if we did not pay out taxes.

The administration has many more failures that I could comment on, such as the Secret Service and its lack of discipline or the Office of Personnel Management and its failure to protect the files of more than 21 million current and former employees. However, I believe Congress’ inability to hold anyone accountable for the Benghazi disaster is its biggest failure. How can we allow Hillary Clinton to continue to skirt her responsibilities? She was the Secretary of State. She was the senior person in the State Department, thus the title “Secretary.” She has continuously pushed aside that responsibility and lied about emails. When she chose the emails that would be released, these lies were inadvertently disclosed by emails from other members of her team.

In testifying before Congress about what occurred to allow the deaths of four Americans in Benghazi, she replied, “What difference does it make?” I am sure it would have made a difference if one of those victims was named Clinton or Obama. However, these were just ordinary citizens doing their jobs. Therefore, in Hillary Clinton’s words, “What difference does it make?”

Remember, she was the Secretary of State. These were her employees and their safety was her responsibility. Sadly, this continues to be forgotten as she moves forward.

Our Congress has failed this country for many years. We elect our representatives to ensure that our voices are being heard. We elected the president to serve this country and provide leadership. We did not elect a dictator. President Obama continues to serve by threatening Congress with his right to veto or to institute his executive action. Today, President Obama has once again threatened Congress if it doesn’t pass his nuclear deal with Iran. It is time Congress stands up for what is right for this country and not what Obama wants. If our current Congress can’t do this, we need to vote them out. We need our voices to be heard and action taken. Those who have responsibility need to be held accountable.

Col. Grey Medinger lives in Spencer.