Another stimulus bill?

Federal handouts to failing financial firms have spawned a single, cynical question from an outraged electorate: Where's my bailout?

Unfortunately, congressional Democrats appear eager to provide an all-too-familiar answer: welfare.

Politicians from both parties are scrambling in response to last week's market meltdowns -- a $700 billion rescue package for Wall Street likely averted economic catastrophe, but it's difficult for anyone to imagine their retirement savings and stock portfolios taking a worse beating than the eight-day blanket party that ended Friday. Monday's historic rally of the Dow Jones industrials did nothing to halt the momentum building toward a new economic stimulus package, one centered on citizens instead of bankers.

Never mind that Congress already tried a bottom-up approach to rebuilding consumer confidence this year by cutting checks to low- and middle-income households. Those checks were euphemistically described as "rebates" even though tens of millions of checks went to people who paid no income taxes, and the households that carry the biggest income tax burden received nothing. Those funds provided short-term relief for families amid record gasoline prices, but did nothing to correct the larger, institutional problems that have banks around the world in crisis.

However, neither majority, front-running Democrats nor reeling Republicans can afford to ignore the frustration and suffering of common citizens, not with Election Day just three weeks away. After giving financial houses the keys to the Treasury, lawmakers and all candidates for federal office are focused exclusively on their constituents.

So House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is planning post-election hearings on legislation that could cost more than $150 billion, dedicated to extended unemployment benefits and food-stamp subsidies as well as money to help deficit-plagued states cover Medicaid bills for the indigent. She said a new round of "rebates" is possible as well, although if Rep. Pelosi stays true to her party's class-warfare agenda, taxpaying households deemed to have made too much money won't be eligible.

In other words, a second economic "stimulus" package will be yet another debt-funded income redistribution scheme. Beyond buying the votes of much of the lower and middle classes, such legislation would do nothing to encourage investment and create new jobs.

House Republicans, on the other hand, are trying to deliver a bit of the change voters are crying for. Rather than employ an identical approach to rebuilding the economy and expect a different result, they're proposing cuts in the country's uncompetitive corporate tax rates and a reduction in the capital gains tax rate. They want more energy exploration to prevent the kind of fuel-price spikes that hammered consumers this summer.

These are ideas that directly address the instability of the economy. These are ideas that could return jobs to companies' shrinking payrolls and give investors a huge incentive to keep buying into a bull market. These are ideas that should have no problem gaining traction within a frustrated populace.

Sen. Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee for president, proposed his own economic stimulus plan Monday, which included a two-year tax break for businesses that create new jobs. That's a start for his party, but the Democratic Congress seems determined to build its plan around taking from some to give to others.

For goodness sakes, if Congress can't resist the urge to send people checks, the least they can do is leave a nexus between taxes paid and rebates received.

However frustrated voters might be with Washington's responses to the battered economy, they need to demand some principle -- and that previous policy mistakes not be repeated.