M.D. Harmon’s diatribe against the Affordable Care Act (“Supreme Court plunges us into the abyss,” July 7) has again been countered by the recent nonpartisan CBO review (“Health care law to cut deficit, says budget office,” July 25).

The CBO finds federal costs will be cut by $84 billion over the next decade.

If the Republicans were to overturn the ACA, it would increase the deficit by $109 billion, according to the CBO, again leaving one of every six Americans with no, or inadequate, health insurance.

Republican politicians vow to ignore the facts and soldier on. Good luck with that. Have you noticed that most of these pols represent the same states that vowed to “whup the North” in the Civil War?

Harmon blames citizen ignorance about the law; but when asked about individual provisions of the law, majorities favor them.

As Abraham Lincoln famously said (before his party was taken over by the robber barons, i.e. “corporate America”), you can fool some of the people all of the time.

Harmon claims that health care costs will balloon and our privacy will be compromised. Apparently he gets his information from the “nonpartisan” Fox News.

He offers all the familiar red herrings. Like our governor, he raises the IRS as the bogeyman.

Like most self-described journalists (most of Fox’s news personalities spring to mind), he seems to have missed the important lessons of journalism that emphasize truth above supposition, facts above polemics and journalistic integrity above all. As a retired military officer, Harmon also has no worries about health care costs.

Paul W. Dutram

Waterville

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