As the Senate again turns its attention to an economic stimulus package, the focus should remain on choosing the quickest, most effective financial boost. Because lawmakers have only one chance to get the contents and timing of a stimulus bill right, they should stick close to the Senate Finance Committee bill. Because it includes an extension of unemployment benefits and would give tax rebates to more low-income people, it is a better package than the one recently passed by the House of Representatives.

In addition to including low-income seniors and disabled people who would be left out of the House package and increasing the rebates to the lowest-income recipients, the Senate Finance Committee package would extend unemployment benefits by another 13 weeks for jobless Americans who continue to search for work. These are large improvements that would get more money, more quickly into the hands of people who will spend it, the key to any economic stimulus package.