"The fact of the matter is that the labor market is still extraordinarily weak," Shierholz said. "It’s way weaker by far than at any time we’ve ever allowed extensions to expire.

Granted, Shierholz is an economist with the liberal Economic Policy Institute and Salon’s Josh Eidelson tailored his questions specifically to shred Walker’s talking points. But she’s also a proponent of policies that benefit the working class.

But Walker insists that the answer is getting people to look harder for work and get more job training. He pointed to Wisconsin’s new requirement upping the number of job searches required of beneficiaries, which has been raised to four per week.

“I don’t know about you, Candy, but if I was out of work I’d be looking more than twice a week for a job," he said. "I’d be looking every day but today. I’d take Sunday off to go to church and pray that I could find a job on Monday.”

He added that “Wisconsin’s one of the few states in America that just changed things so that adults without kids looking for work now have to be enrolled in one of our employment training program.”

Shierholz notes that these efforts create jobs – for state workers administering those efforts.