Senate bill a good start at addressing unemployment

THE jobs bill passed Wednesday by the U.S. Senate offers a refreshingly focused and bipartisan blueprint for addressing unemployment.

The vast majority of this tight bill is aimed at Main Street. The best way to create jobs is to help employers. The Senate's $15 billion measure gives companies a break from paying Social Security taxes on new employees for the remainder of 2010 and allows companies to write off equipment purchases. It also includes a one-year extension of the Highway Trust Fund and an expansion of the Build America Bonds program.

This is a noteworthy beginning to a much-needed multipart congressional effort on jobs. Getting workers back on the job by aiding small businesses was a key first step. Tax cuts provide small-business owners with an attractive incentive to once again hang out the help-wanted sign.

Future attempts to battle the nation's high unemployment rate ought to stay focused and as far away from broad, sweeping efforts as possible.

The Senate bill now moves to the House, where it will either replace or be reconciled with a substantially larger jobs bill passed in December.

As lawmakers take up both measures, they shouldn't forget the impact of high unemployment on young people. Elements of the House bill commendably addressed this, including funding summer youth-employment programs and a dislocated-worker fund.

This would help tremendously in King County, where 900 young people who worked summer jobs last summer will not work this summer. Across the state, 5,600 people who participated in summer jobs that often turned into permanent ones could use Congress' help.

The Senate's bipartisan effort is an important start to a long-range plan to get Americans working again.