Senators should be stimulated to pass economic-recovery package

THE U.S. Senate tackles the lardy but necessary economic-stimulus package this week. As they do, Senate Democrats should be willing to slim down pork in the proposal, and Republicans ought to move away from the tired old politics of indifference to help pass the plan.

The economy is tumbling. The bad news won't stop. The gross domestic product shrank 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter of last years, the sharpest contraction in a quarter century.

Details of the stimulus matter. The Senate can improve the plan by ensuring spending matches the goal of creating jobs. But the country elected Barack Obama by a healthy margin because he promised to turn the economy around. He has to be given tools to accomplish his goal.

Senate Republicans are expected to be more helpful than House counterparts were last week; they must find a way to vote yes. In the Senate, Democrats need Republican support more than in the House, but the Senate is also a different institution. Members are more collegial and bipartisan.

Last week's unanimous Republican "no" vote on the stimulus plan, which passed the House anyway, was icy cold politics from a party the new president has been trying to include. President Obama preaches bipartisanship but the first big vote was an orchestrated nay vote that made the GOP look it was operating in a sunny economic climate in a different era.

The idea is not for Republicans to abandon their principles but they have to admit, tax cuts alone don't create jobs. The package must — and will — include a bigger dose of construction projects and programs.

The stimulus package is costly, but it is a necessary evil. The alternative is doing nothing and waiting for time to cure a very sick economy.

Americans need Congress to extend health care and other benefits for the unemployed. College students require expanded help to stay in school. And shovel-ready projects, to use Obama's term, have to be ramped up because that is the fastest way to create jobs.

Turning the economy around requires a team effort. That means everybody, or almost everybody, gets their hands dirty.