GOP SEES POLITICAL OPPORTUNITY rather than risk in opposing jobless benefits:

Congressional Republicans feel little political pressure to extend unemployment benefits ... confident that President Obama’s push for that additional aid would undercut his message that the economy is recovering and that his fiscal policies are working.

[T]he president's insistence on the dire need for additional jobless aid sends the message to voters that five years of his Democratic stewardship has failed to revive the economy.

Here's the proper argument to make in lieu of increasing jobless benefits or the minimum wage.