Here's Why America Doesn't Want To Extend Benefits To The Unemployed

Democrats are making a late push to get the Senate to approve an extension of the Emergency Unemployment Compensation (EUC) program that expired on December 28, leaving 1.3 million Americans without benefits.

The bill is a long shot to pass in the House, even if Democrats can break a Senate filibuster.

Though benefit extensions tend to poll well, Republicans are in no mood to do President Obama any favors, Potomac Research Group's Greg Valliere writes clients this morning. From Valliere:

THE TRUMP CARD: Democrats say, correctly, that an extension of jobless benefits polls well, with the public eager to confront income disparity. But public opposition to more government spending trumps everything else; most Americans think the deficit is going straight up, when in fact it's going straight down. "No new spending" is still a powerful rallying cry, one that won't subside anytime soon.

As Valliere notes, here's the deficit over the last few years. It's harder to digest than the "no new spending" mantra:

And as a percentage of GDP: