To the editor:

Mike Hoeflich’s commentary (“U.S. losing art of compromise,” June 30) misses the mark by a mile. Hoeflich laments the lack of compromise by Congress, but it’s the Democrats who compromise regularly while the Republicans seldom do.

On health care, President Obama and the Democratic leadership gave up on single-payer at the start. Then Democrats caved on the limited public option. Republicans insisted that the newly insured Americans be covered by private insurers so Democrats bent over for that one, a major windfall for insurance companies.

The Democrats wanted to extend the Bush tax cuts for all but the richest Americans, but Republicans refused to budge so the rich kept their tax breaks, depriving our treasury of hundreds of billions of dollars.

On financial reform, the Republicans saw no need to tighten regulations even after the Wall Street parasites caused the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. Republicans watered down the “reforms” so much that restraints on the banks will be negligible.

Now, Republicans want to provide vouchers with a $6,000 cap for Medicare recipients. Over $6,000, they are on their own to pay. One short visit to a hospital could exhaust the vouchers, so the patient could run up huge debt and face financial ruin. On this issue, the Democrats need to hang tough and not permit this pillaging of patients.

Finally, Hoeflich suggests Americans think that compromise is a bad thing. But most Americans know that compromise is good. It’s the Republican leaders in Congress who act like spoiled brats and won’t compromise for the public good.