To the editor:

It is time once again to remind your "opinion" columnist Harry Hurley that, while he may be entitled to his opinion, he is not entitled to his own facts.

Mr. Hurley stated in his Feb. 2, 2012 article that, during President Obama's State of the Union speech, the president did not mention any accomplishments during his three years in office. This is a flat out lie.

You see Mr. Hurley, I actually watched the speech and I seem to recall President Obama said that, and I quote, "For the first time in nine years, there are no Americans fighting in Iraq. For the first time in two decades, Osama bin Laden is not a threat to this country. Most of al Qaeda's top lieutenants have been defeated. The Taliban's momentum has been broken, and some troops in Afghanistan have begun to come home."

Not too bad for a man who you claim didn't mention any accomplishments. As a matter of fact, those are achievements that former President George W. Bush could not claim. In fact, President Bush actually stated about bin Laden that he, and again I quote, "I truly am not that concerned about him."

Mr. Hurley also stated that, if we raised the tax rates in this country, unemployment would go up. This has again been proven wrong. When President Bill Clinton was in office, taxes were raised and guess what? We had record job growth, and we actually had a budget surplus.

As far as "cooking the books" in regards to unemployment. I will look at the true numbers to prove again that Mr. Hurley is not telling the truth. During this administration, more than 1.3 million jobs have been created in the private sector. The only reason the overall numbers are not higher is the fact that many jobs have been lost in the public sector.

Lastly Mr. Hurley, you say that President Obama has one of the worst records as president. I will point out that the man he followed into office not only tried to destroy this country, but he cut taxes to the richest 2 percent of the country, went to war in not one but two countries (and one, Iraq, was a war of aggression, a true war crime) and gave us the ill-conceived Medicare Part D – and never paid for them. He will go down in history as the worst president ever.

Once again Mr. Hurley, you are entitled to your opinion, however you are not entitled to your own facts. Please remember that when you start typing your next article.

Ronald Daignault

Shawcrest Island

Lower Township