To the Editor:

Once again, I read a guest column by Edward Tharp (“Obamacare will crush middle class,” June 14, Page A14) and wonder why he is not relegated to the letters section.

He is merely rallying tea party followers with sloganeering tropes like, “Stand with us if you really care,” and exposes his extremism with ridiculous statements like, “Democrats and John Boehner Republicans want socialism…”

Really? “John Boehner Republicans” desire socialism? Where does he get this stuff ?

Perhaps it’s just a “man’s brain” thing. Rep. Ken Fredette, R-Newport, stood on the floor of the state House last week and claimed that, after reading the pop culture trifle “Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus,” he has a better understanding as to the divide on health care issues. Those who support the Affordable Care Act and expanding Medicaid in our state must have women’s brains, because they clearly don’t understand that “there’s a cost to this.”

Well, my women’s brain — along with my husband’s and myriad male friends’ brains — realizes, sadly, that Rep. Fredette misses the bigger point, the forest-for-the-trees point, which is that hewing to the ACA plan will give an additional 70,000 Mainers health coverage and is estimated to save some $690 million over the next decade.

Reducing complex arguments down to slogans and pop philosophy is not healthy, and certainly not worthy of guest columns in our local newspapers.

Lorry Fleming
Bath