After over a month of partisan wrangling, Republican filibusters and intense debate, Senate Democrats are set to extend unemployment benefits for over 2.5 million Americans.

In the midst of the worst recession since The Great Depression, Congress had extended unemployment benefits past the normal 26 weeks six times since June 2008. However, those benefits expired in early June after a Republican filibuster stalled Democratic efforts to once again prolong those benefits.

With the swearing in of the late Sen. Robert Byrd’s (D-WV) replacement, Carte Goodwin, Democrats will have enough votes to defeat the procedural maneuver and restore those benefits to millions of struggling Americans.

Goodwin will join with the Democratic caucus and Maine Republicans Olympia Snowe and Susan Collins to overcome the minority filibuster. Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) is expected to vote with Republicans in opposing the measure.

Seeking to make Republicans’ position an election issue come November, President Barack Obama took to the Rose Garden yesterday to chastise them for their hypocrisy.

“The same people who didn’t have any problem spending hundreds of billions of dollars on tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans are now saying we shouldn’t offer relief to middle-class Americans,” Obama said.

Republicans say that their opposition is simply a matter of fiscal responsibility. They want Democrats to pay for the $34 billion measure by cutting spending elsewhere, making it deficit neutral.

“The president knows that Republicans support extending unemployment insurance, and doing it in a fiscally responsible way by cutting spending elsewhere in the $3 trillion federal budget,” Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, the House Republican leader, said in a statement Monday. “At a time of record debt and deficits made worse by Washington Democrats’ massive spending spree, that’s the right thing to do and the right way to do it.”

Proponents of the extension, however, have pointed out that Republicans have no qualms about extending the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy without any corresponding cuts. The tax cuts have contributed roughly $1 trillion to the national debt.

Others critical of Republican opposition believe that there is an ulterior motive among some Republicans. Eager to pander to their angry, conservative base, many of whom believe that the unemployed are simply lazy Americans more than willing to collect a government check rather than look for a job, some Republicans have described continued unemployment benefits as a moral hazard.

“Continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work,” Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) said during a floor debate this spring.

A recent CBS News poll found that 54 percent of Republicans oppose extending unemployment benefits. While the opposition may indeed be a base-pleasing position to take, it is unlikely to pay dividends come November. Overall, 62 percent of Americans support the extension, and 59 percent of politically crucial independents concur.

“These are honest, decent, hardworking folks who have fallen on hard times through no fault of their own,” Obama said.

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