Unfortunately, one of the main reasons that Obama acquiesced to keeping the Bush Tax Cuts (or whatever you want to call them) is that the Republicans held the unemployment insurance benefits extension hostage.

The economy was so bad, so many people were out of work, AND it has been shown that $1 in unemployment = $1.61 in economic stimulus, that not having that extension would have not just hurt real people but it would have damaged the barely recovering economy further.