Responding to recent letters, the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) is not a fiasco at all. The fiasco was the start-up, which was fixed long ago. Millions of people are now relieved to have affordable insurance coverage.

Federal debt has increased with every president. According to snopes.com, under Clinton the increase was 37 percent; George W. Bush, 86 percent; Barack Obama, 34 percent. “Obamacare” is projected to reduce the deficit by $109 billion over the next 10 years.

Claims about armed IRS agents coming to get you if you don’t have insurance are just silly. FactCheck.org says the main IRS duties will be working with small business owners on tax credits for employee health-care costs and refundable tax credits to help low- and middle-income Americans get insurance.

One letter writer said that health care for everyone has never succeeded. Residents of France, Japan, Israel, Spain, Italy, Australia, Switzerland, Sweden, Chile, the U.K., and most other developed countries, would disagree. Some have private pay options, also. Their health care is rated better than ours.

The National Priorities Project says corporate and other tax breaks cost $1.18 trillion in 2013. Eliminating those would totally eliminate all of the deficit.

Republicans are ranting about the deficit (and Benghazi) hoping people won’t notice their opposition to raising the minimum wage and equal pay for women, their ignoring ordinary Americans while promoting tax breaks for huge corporations and the super-rich, their anti-science attitude, their interference in women’s personal family decisions, and their efforts to gut Social Security and Medicare.

Ellen Field, New Gloucester

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