Let’s be real. Congress must compromise to constrain the polarized Right as well as the polarized Left and become bipartisan to create jobs.

First, we need to put health care reform on hiatus. Health care and all stimulus programs will fail (like TARP) unless Congress acts quickly to bring about restraints curbing abuse.

In Europe a medical dictionary lists the cost of every procedure. We need the same. Currently a doctor might prescribe a procedure that should cost $400, yet find that local hospitals charge between $1,000 and $4,000.

Cost containment is possible. The last few years competition has reduced drug costs for medicines purchased at drugstore chains and HMOs. Pharmaceutical corporations, HMOs, and medical insurers need to continually participate in upgrading service at lower cost for every American.

Putting Americans back to work is the first priority of Congress. A jobless economic recovery is no recovery at all. Only large numbers of profitably employed citizens can buy the goods and pay the taxes to make our country solvent.

We all must put aside selfishness and sacrifice for the welfare of our neighbors. Even though 33 percent of our income now goes to taxes, recovery can bring this up to 45 percent. We need remove the tax loopholes for the 2 percent of Americans who control 80 percent of our wealth.

Let’s be real, compromise is essential for our

While I deplore the abuses of our medical care industries the past few years they have expanded, providing employment for many men and women. We must protect these jobs and these services while holding the providers accountable. Likewise, job stimulus legislation must provide loans and incentives to employ workers and protect their benefits.

TARP legislation, initiated under the Bush administration and supported by Republicans and Democrats, provided taxpayer dollars to save major banks and investment corporations because they were “too big to fail.” This support was intended to provide incentives for banks to clean up their act and protect the interests of customers (individuals and small businesses).

Instead, bankers, together with credit card companies, initiated practices penalizing customers least able to pay and rewarding predatory managers. This aberrant behavior must cease.

Only a population of profitably employed, taxpaying Americans can bring about economic recovery. The perverted concept of “jobless recovery” is obscene. Our country recovered from the Great Depression when America got into World War II uniting government and private enterprise and providing full employment. We may need to sacrifice for the greater good. This is our patriotic duty.

Bob Olson, Bellevue