Yeah, it's true.
Went back to an EPI source in the article, and as I suspected, once you get past all the foof, the basic assumption seems to be "stipulate that unemployment benefits come from the Money Fairy." In fact, they don't seem to concern themselves with the source at all.
Someone said (possibly on this board - I don't recall), "well, why not just put everyone on unemployment for the maximum economic benefit?" The response was liberal fury. Of course, the humorous premise exposes the fundamental flaw in the concept.