Scott Walker: Unemployment benefits, minimum wage push because Obama 'desperately' wants to avoid ObamaCare

Wisconsin governor Scott Walker dismissed the White House's push to extend emergency unemployment benefits and raise the minimum wage Sunday morning, criticizing Democrats' all-out push for legislation as an effort to distract from the recent problems with the new health care law.

"They want to desperately talk about anything other than ObamaCare,” the conservative Republican Walker told CNN's Candy Crowley on Sunday morning. Walker appeared on the network shortly after Obama's economic adviser Gene Sperling had come on to advocate keeping emergency unemployment benefits, which lapsed in December, in place.

Walker indicated that he was not necessarily opposed to extending the benefits, but said that unemployment insurance needed reform. He cited a reform his own state put in place to require beneficiaries of unemployment benefits to actively search for jobs five times a week, not just twice.

"If I was out of work I’d look for a job every day except for maybe today, I’d be in church praying for a job," Walker said. He also suggested requiring employment training in the program, so that recipients are "ready to get in the game" when a job opens up, mentioning a woman who became health technician through the Wisconsin version of the program.

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