Confidence in the economy is plummeting even faster than the stock market, which has seen about 40 percent of its value evaporate this year.

The $700 billion bailout plan has shifted course dramatically and still isn’t having the desired effect on credit markets, which remain essentially frozen. The U.S. auto industry is teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Unemployment is rising fast — new claims for jobless benefits last week reached their highest level in 16 years.

In Snohomish County, the jobless rate jumped a full percentage point in October, to 6.1 percent, and that doesn’t include the pending layoff of some 800 workers at Meridian Yachts in Arlington, which is closing. Even Boeing, with its years worth of back orders, is warning of possible layoffs next year.

Imagining the picture getting a lot worse is, well, unimaginable. A major federal stimulus package is needed, and the sooner the better. But instead of tax rebate checks, which last time went mostly to pay existing debt, the immediate goal of a new package should be to create jobs — now — generating paychecks that will be spent, week after week.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, has spelled out an excellent list of priorities for Congress to pursue, focusing on money for ready-to-go public works and transportation projects that will have a double benefit: creating jobs immediately and addressing the pressing needs of our aging and weakening infrastructure. Plenty of state projects have all the necessary planning and permitting in place — all they lack is funding.

Most congressional Democrats are on board with the idea, but to date it has lacked support from Republicans — including President Bush. Another major stimulus bill may have to wait until the Obama administration takes office on Jan. 20 and the new Congress is in place, which means putting off the benefits while the economy worsens — a potentially costly mistake. Delay is a risk not worth taking.

President-elect Obama’s transition team says the economy will be the first thing he addresses upon taking office, probably with such a stimulus package. So why wait and risk worse damage? In this time of crisis, Congress and the Bush administration should put ideological differences aside and do everything possible to stave off disaster.