WASHINGTON -- Concerned about rising voter anxiety about the economy only weeks before a crucial election, House Republicans on Tuesday began pushing a pair of tax cuts for investors whose retirement accounts and stock portfolios have suffered from the stock market swoon.

While the bills cleared a committee hurdle Tuesday and will probably pass the GOP-controlled House, the Senate is unlikely to act on them, given that the Democrats running the Senate contend its main purpose is as a campaign message.

The GOP, Democrats contend, is only pushing the bills as a last-minute effort to appear sensitive to voters' rising worries about unemployment, shaky pension funds and stock market woes.