UnemploymentBenefitsExtension

Minutes after swearing in new Senator Carte Goodwin of West Virginia, Senate Democrats moved swiftly to send an extension of long-term unemployment insurance to an up-or-down vote.

Senate Democrats are poised to pass an extension of unemployment insurance for the 2.5 million people whose benefits have expired. With passage of the extension highly likely, Obama has leveled last-minute political shots.

A battle in the U.S. Senate over the nation's deficit and taxes is increasingly leaving the country's jobless as its biggest victim. Congress ended the week with no action to extend unemployment benefits in 2010. According to the National Employment Law Project, 900,000 people have already lost...