Bruce Bartlett - Bruce Bartlett is an economist associated with supply-side economics. He was a domestic policy adviser to President Ronald Reagan and was a treasury official under President George H.W. Bush.
David Boaz - Cato's executive vice president David Boaz has played a key role in the development of the Cato Institute and the libertarian movement. He is a provocative commentator and a leading authority on domestic issues such as education choice, drug legalization, the growth of government, and the rise of libertarianism.
He is the author of Libertarianism: A Primer, described by the Los Angeles Times as "a well-researched manifesto of libertarian ideas," the editor of The Libertarian Reader, and coeditor of the Cato Handbook on Policy.
Boaz is the former editor of New Guard magazine and was executive director of the Council for a Competitive Economy prior to joining Cato in 1981. His articles have been published in the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, National Review, and Slate.
He is a frequent guest on national television and radio shows, and has appeared on ABC's "Politically Incorrect with Bill Maher", CNN's "Crossfire", NPR's "Talk of the Nation" and "All Things Considered", "John McLaughlin's One on One", Fox News Channel, BBC, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe, and other media.
Casey Lartigue - Casey Lartigue is a former policy analyst with Cato's Center for Educational Freedom. His research expertise includes school choice, teacher quality and minority education. His writings have been published in USA Today, Ed. magazine published at the Harvard Graduate School of Education, Education Week, the New York Post, the Washington Times, Asian Week and the Washington Post.
Before joining the Center, he worked as a staff writer at Cato. He has spoken at the National Press Club, Harvard Law School, the Harvard Graduate School of Education, been a guest on the Rush Limbaugh Show, and testified before Congress on school choice in the nation's capital.
Prior to joining Cato, Lartigue taught English and worked as a language examiner in Taiwan and South Korea. Lartigue received a bachelor's degree from the Harvard University Extension School and a master's degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Education.
February is Black History Month, so it's an appropriate time to take a critical look at the way government has treated racial minorities, especially African Americans.
Is government more likely to be the friend or adversary of minority groups? Has it been liberals, conservatives, or libertarians like William Lloyd Garrison and Frederick Douglass who have been the most consistent defenders of everyone's rights? What does history suggest would be the best public policy for racial minorities in the 21st century?
Bruce Bartlett, a former Reagan administration economist with a provocative new book, and Casey Lartigue, coeditor of Educational Freedom in Urban America and a controversial former XM 169 talk show host, will discuss these questions- Cato Institute