Joseph Califano on the Direction of America's Social Programs

Sociologist and research associate at the Institute for the Study of Social Change, Elliott Currie. He has a new book, "Reckoning: Drugs, the Cities, and the American Future." He believes that effective drug control depends on curtailing poverty and improving the economy in inner cities.

David M. Walker is the former comptroller general of the United States. His book, Comeback America, details the current financial crisis and offers his ideas on controlling spending and restoring fiscal responsibility in the United States.

Holding immigrants responsible for various health epidemics has been an American pastime for two centuries argues Alan Kraut, Professor of History at American University. Just as the Irish were wrongly blamed for the cholera epidemic in the 1830's so too were Haitians in Miami branded as AIDS carriers in the 1980's. His new book "Silent Travelers: Germs, Genes, & the "Immigrant Menace"" (Basic Books) traces how immigration policy and health care have been affected by xenophobia and public fears of contamination. (Interview by Marty Moss-Coane)