President Barack Obama is to blame for the flood of illegal immigrants crossing the border, the crisis with the Internal Revenue Service and for failures in foreign policy, people surveyed for a new
IBD/TIPP poll said.
Of the 879 adults surveyed between June 24 and 29, 59 percent of the respondents said "current administration policies and lack of focus on securing the border" led to the thousands of immigrants, many of whom are young children, coming across the border.
Similarly, 60 percent said the children who have entered the country illegally should be ordered back to their home nations.
Obama has asked Congress for
$2 billion for border security and to allow more space for detaining the children, as well as sending some of them back home. However, he fueled outrage among conservatives on Monday when he blamed House Republicans for blocking the Senate's comprehensive immigration reform package.
The president also angered watchers when he said he would take
executive action on the immigration issue, saying he has directed his staff to recommend initiatives he can act quickly upon this summer.
House Speaker John Boehner,R-Ohio, blamed Obama for giving illegal immigrants false hope, and said Republicans do not believe the president will enforce border security measures.
In addition to his issues with the border, Obama was also hit hard in the poll over the expanding IRS scandal, with 65 percent saying they believe former IRS official Lois Lerner's lost emails were part of the administration's plan to hide evidence that the agency was targeting conservative groups for scrutiny just before Obama's 2012 re-election bid.
Even taking political affiliations into consideration, most Americans believe Obama is at fault for the scandal. Sixty-five percent of the independents believe the Obama administration is behind the scandal, and even 36 percent believe the missing emails are part of a cover-up scheme.
In addition, 56 percent of respondents said Obama's decision to remove troops from Iraq have led to the current unrest, leaving a vacuum that has allowed the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) to overtake several cities. Like with the IRS, the blame game isn't partisan in nature, as half of the Democrats surveyed also blame the troop withdrawal for causing unrest.
In addition, 55 percent say Obama is not being honest with his claims that Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki was behind removing U.S. troops from Iran, and only 27 percent gave Obama top marks for how he's handled the Iraq situation. However, 55 percent say his administration's failure to contain the Syrian conflict has contributed to ISIS's rise.
Meanwhile, most polled believe ISIS to be a threat to U.S. security, but only 49 percent supported airstrikes and 27 percent the use of ground troops.
Overall, however, the poll dropped Obama's rating as a leader down 0.1 point to 44.9 percent, marking 16 months in which he received a negative score.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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