After five months of work, Senate Democrats have given up on plans to extend long term jobless benefits and more, as the bill was blocked again on Thursday by a Republican filibuster in the Senate.

All 40 Republicans stuck together, arguing that more budget cuts were needed to offset the extra spending in the bill.  They were joined by Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE).

Democrats denounced the GOP for using the filibuster repeatedly on this legislation, and reminded Republicans that they had repeatedly extended jobless benefits without budget offsets during the Bush Administration.

"Being lectured by Republicans about debt is like being lectured by Evel Kneivel about safe driving," snorted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI).

"We're where we are because Republicans have said 'no' to helping America," said Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid.

Republicans returned the verbal favor, emphasizing their demand that Democrats pay for the extra spending.

"What we're not willing to do is use worthwhile programs as an excuse to burden our children and our grandchildren with an even bigger national debt than we've already got," said Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell.

We may be in for a repeat of this fight, as Democrats will try to move next week to a small business lending bill. There will be a cloture vote on the motion to proceed to that bill on Monday evening.

One last thing - remember that this bill was about much more than just the extended jobless benefits.  Here are the bullet point details from the Associated Press:

   TAXES
   --Extends for one year about $32 billion in tax breaks that expired in January, including a property tax deduction for people who don't itemize, lucrative credits that help businesses finance research and develop new products, and a sales tax deduction that mainly helps people in states without income taxes.
   --Increases taxes on investment and hedge fund managers, venture capitalists and many real estate investment partnerships by $13.6 billion.
   --Increases taxes on oil companies by $18.3 billion by raising from 8 cents a barrel to 49 cents a barrel the tax they pay into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund.
   --Raises taxes on multinational companies some $14.5 billion by limiting their ability to use credits for paying foreign taxes to lower their U.S. tax liability.
   --Raises $9.2 billion by requiring lawyers, doctors and other service providers to pay payroll taxes on income funneled through their businesses.
   SPENDING
   --$35.5 billion to continue unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless through November. In a majority of states, the unemployed could have received benefits for up to 99 weeks.
   --$16 billion for states to help cover Medicaid costs and avoid layoffs of public employees.
   --$6.5 billion to provide a six-month reprieve from a scheduled 21 percent cut in Medicare payments to doctors.
   --$4.6 billion to settle long-running class-action lawsuits brought by black farmers and American Indians. One lawsuit concerned the government's management and accounting of more than 300,000 trust accounts of American Indians. The other is a discrimination lawsuit brought by black farmers against the Agriculture Department.
   --$4 billion to expand the Build America Bonds program, which subsidizes interest costs paid by local governments when they borrow for construction projects.
   --$1.5 billion in relief for farmers who suffered crop damage from natural disasters in 2009.
   --$1 billion for summer jobs programs, for workers ages 16 to 21.
   SPENDING CUTS
   --$10.4 billion cut from last year's economic stimulus bill, mostly from reducing food stamp benefits starting in June, 2014. A family of four would have faced about a $45-per-month benefit cut.
   --$1.2 billion from changes to a tax credit earned by the working poor.
   --$2.1 billion from lower Medicaid payments for certain drugs.