The phrase "Time is money" is true now more than at any time in recent memory.

Every day that's lost before the enactment of federal stimulus legislation delays the delivery of treatment to the ailing economy, which increases the threat of job loss, more fears and further weakness.

The spending in the stimulus package now before the U.S. Senate needs to be reoriented so that it delivers the maximum jolt where it's needed most: to projects and to tax incentives that keep businesses running and save jobs.

Nothing could be more crucial after a chilling January record: a half-million jobs lost by Americans who now must put their lives back together.

The first thing on the cutting-room floor should be the partisan sniping. It's crunch time in the Senate — both sides have to come to terms.

That means Democrats should hear GOP ideas for reforming the package, which is undeniably overlarded with pork. And Republicans such as Minority Whip Jon Kyl should knock off the talk of a filibuster. Sagging consumer confidence, the bane of economic health, is not buoyed by such political melodrama.

Blocking this bill is not in the country's best interest. Senators must work together to fix it and deliver effective relief quickly.

Ultimately, the cure for the financial crisis that touched off the panic will lie in a comprehensive revamping of the regulations that should have prevented all this. Was it the gatekeepers who were asleep at the switch? Or, in the cases of some financial dealings, had the switch never been installed at all?

For now, the job at hand is to stop the bleeding. The bill is nearing $1 trillion in cost, and a big chunk of that spending doesn't belong.

These include the millions for piecemeal projects such as moving the Public Health Service to a new building, converting to electronic data collection for health statistics and a rainy-day fund for the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) food subsidy, which just got a $1 billion infusion.

Sundry items such as these, which do little or nothing to stimulate the economy, should undergo the scrutiny of the regular appropriations bill. Other programs, such as money for college scholarships, deserve consideration later; but in the context of this emergency stimulus package, they invite needless delay.

Fortunately, there's hope that good sense will prevail. Senate Budget Committee chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., wants a spending plan that favors "temporary, timely and targeted" projects. He's right: What's needed is money to build and repair the underpinnings of commerce — transit and other public works that also generate jobs.

Then businesses, which need hope of future profits, deserve tax relief to keep workers employed.

In the end, it's all about jobs and hope for the future. And if a program won't provide that, it shouldn't weigh down this critical legislation.