Democrats will try again this week to approve jobs legislation and extend long term jobless and COBRA health benefits for the unemployed.  Simmering beneath both items is a fight over whether items like this should be paid for, or added to the deficit.

The jobs bill is on the schedule this week for the House - while the Senate will duke it out over a temporary extension of jobless benefits, COBRA benefits, and more.

The $15 billion jobs bill ran into hurdles last week in the House, where key lawmakers balked because of changes made in the legislation to federal highway programs, that funneled extra money away from a number of states.

It's also opposed by more liberal lawmakers, who argue that $15 billion is way too small to have any effect.

Meanwhile, the Senate will see a showdown this week over extending - for another month - jobless and COBRA health benefits for the unemployed.

If you were reading along with us last week, it was Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) who blocked approval of the bill, demanding that the extra spending for those benefits be offset with budget cuts - he proposed using unspent money from the economic stimulus.

Democrats will have to file cloture to deal with that, as they try to jam a lot of special interest stuff into a bill that deals with those benefits.

All of it - the jobs bill and the extended provisions (extenders as they are called in the DC hallways) would not be paid for by the Congress - instead it would simply be added on to the deficit.

That's one reason, more conservative Democrats - the Blue Dogs - are balking, because of the recently signed Pay-as-you-go law, which mandates that extra spending like these items has to be paid for by offsetting cuts.

The forecast is for giant amounts of partisanship!