Additional layoffs in Kansas City and around the country this week underscore the need for Congress to move quickly to strengthen the economy. The massive Democratic plan promises to do so in many ways, although improvements should be made in it before the Senate vote next week.

To prevent a downward economic spiral, Washington must focus on measures that can help immediately or in the very near future. Construction projects for five or 10 years down the road may well be good ideas, but they won’t get today’s economy out of the rut.

Tax cuts: About a third of the House-approved plan would go to tax cuts. That’s a reasonable percentage, although Republicans wanted to see it higher.

Tax cuts can provide an economic boost fairly quickly — particularly when they go to people with low or modest incomes. These are the people who need the most help in a recession, and they are likely to promptly spend the money and stimulate the economy.

Some people will save the money from their tax cuts rather than spend it, but even saved dollars will give people more financial flexibililty and confidence in the future. That, too, can help.

Food stamps and unemployment benefits: On the spending side, the House bill would pump billions of additional dollars a year into food stamps and extended unemployment assistance.

Again, this serves a double purpose: helping Americans who need assistance the most, while ensuring that the money will quickly find its way back into the economy. This will support businesses, protect some jobs and create others.

The resistance of Republican lawmakers to such plans in the midst of a severe recession seems churlish, particularly after a decade in which the GOP approved tax cuts and other government policies that produced a financial bonanza for those at the very top of the economic ladder.

State aid: Federal assistance to the states is another good idea, one that would provide some badly needed help in both Kansas and Missouri as state leaders wrestle with budget shortfalls.

Federal dollars can help them avoid harmful layoffs, cuts in essential public services and the resulting economic dislocations.

Increasing federal funds for Medicaid will be particularly helpful for the states and will help people deal with the medical problems that come with tough economic times. These problems result from skipped doctor’s visits, unfilled prescriptions, anxiety over lost jobs, drug abuse and so on.

Infrastructure and health care: The bill’s provisions for infrastructure spending are more problematic. As the Congressional Budget Office points out, much of this spending would take place more than a year and a half from now.

Some proposed spending on health care would not start, theoretically, until the next presidential administration.

Republican critics are correct in saying these projects have little or nothing to do with jump-starting today’s economy.

President Obama has signaled a willingness to compromise with the GOP, and these long-term spending plans would be good things for the Democrats to give up — at least in this legislation.

The plan will require massive borrowing by the federal government, which is already deeply in the red.

This borrowing can be justified by the current crisis, but it can’t go on forever. Everyone should remember that federal spending will need to be cut back as soon as the economic recovery starts to take hold.

At that point, state and local governments should be able to shift back to their own revenue sources — and Uncle Sam will need to start paying off his credit cards.