John Balentine’s column “This Year Choose Hope” confused me. I am in total agreement about refraining from personal attacks and always try to listen to all differing points of view. When he suggests learning some facts before opining on policies, I thoroughly agree. Then he claims that President Obama’s “only notable domestic achievement,” the Affordable Care Act, is becoming unaffordable.

Twenty-five million Americans have been able to afford health insurance coverage for the first time in their lives. Clearly the law makes coverage available through subsidy based on income. I consider dozens of programs to reduce automotive and power plant emissions and actions to improve the fairness of wages and overtime for American workers to be achievements, and several administration efforts to improve the civil rights of millions of citizens are also significant achievements, while reducing the federal government budget deficit by two thirds.

I have no evidence of President-elect Donald Trump’s decisive leadership except sound bites about “making America great” by imposing a ban on Muslim immigration, banning all refugees from countries with terrorism problems, starting a nuclear arms war and demanding payment for defending our allies, building a wall on our southern border, and removing regulations that hamper corporate business development at the cost to our environment while proposing a budget that will add one trillion dollars or more per year to the national debt. So let’s discuss the facts before offering an opinion.

Robert Libby
Chebeague Island 

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