The five Republican senators involved in working out the Senate's plan to extend emergency unemployment aid
do not seem intimidated by House Speaker John Boehner's repeated trashing of the plan. For instance:
“There’s a lot of things that the speaker doesn’t like that we do over here,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). “What we have out there is a fair proposal.” [...]
“It’s a good compromise that takes care of people who are running out of their checks and does it in a way that is paid for appropriately,” said Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.). [...]
“There’s a concern out there about implementation, I understand that. But it’s been done before, and we’re eager to hear [the House’s] ideas as to how it could be implemented more effectively,” said Sen. Rob Portman (R-Ohio).
As long as these Republicans and all the Democrats hold firm, the pressure is squarely on Boehner to explain why he's not even allowing a vote on a bill with bipartisan Senate support, or seeking fixes to technical concerns about the bill rather than using them as an excuse to block it entirely. Millions of jobless Americans and their families are waiting.