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Federal welfare reform reached Hawaii a year before this broadcast, and its consequences are just registering. Roth convenes three guests with sharply different diagnoses. Ah Quon McElrath, retired union social worker and University of Hawaii regent, calls the new law's two-year work requirements and five-year lifetime caps draconian, arguing that structural unemployment — Hawaii's rate stands at 6.1 percent against the mainland's 4.9 — makes mandatory work punishing. Fred Hemmings, businessman and former candidate for governor, insists jobs exist, that Maui employers recruit labor from Micronesia, and that only about 25 cents of every welfare dollar reaches recipients, the rest consumed by a government "welfare industry." Kristine Foster, the state's welfare administrator, reports caseload growth has slowed from double-digit rates to 1 percent and employed recipients have risen 25 percent; she and McElrath agree that child care and transportation are prerequisites the law does not guarantee. Hemmings and McElrath clash sharply on whether the Cato Institute's figure of $36,000 in total benefits per recipient is accurate, and whether private charity could replace public programs. A caller who recently found work describes being cut off before adequate support arrived.
Transcript
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Companion newspaper commentaries
Commentaries by the guests, published in The Honolulu Advertiser around the broadcast.
