Cato Event Podcast

Sixty years ago, the United States Supreme Court decided the landmark case of NAACP v. Alabama. In 1956, as part of the civil rights struggle, the state of Alabama sought the membership lists of the NAACP chapter in that state. The Court ruled against the state and discerned a “vital relationship between freedom to associate and privacy in one’s associations.” The decision remains a high point from the civil rights era. However, many now deny the Court’s assertion that a broad right to privacy offers a vital protection for the freedom to associate and to speak.Since the decision, the Court has placed few limits on government’s power to mandate disclosure of political activities and associations. As the new online era of speech dawns, the principles at stake in NAACP v. Alabama remain at the center of public debates. Is the right to associational privacy recognized in NAACP v. Alabama still good law? Or should the Court reconsider the tie between privacy and association? Please join us for a vigorous debate that takes this important anniversary as a starting point for our common future. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Since World War II, the United States has maintained an active foreign policy agenda, deeply engaged in both the economic and military domains. Many observers over the past few years, however, have voiced doubts about public support for the critical pillars of American internationalism. Many have worried, in particular, about whether younger Americans will believe it worthwhile to take up the mantle of global leadership. A new report from the Chicago Council on Global Affairs, the Charles Koch Institute, and Cato scholars Trevor Thrall and Erik Goepner analyzes a wide range of survey data collected by the Chicago Council since 1974. The report finds that each generation from the silent generation onward entered adulthood less supportive of expansive American internationalism. More recent generations also express lower support for militarized approaches to achieve foreign policy goals. In this special Cato policy forum, the authors will present their findings and will participate in a lively discussion on the impact that generational differences may have on U.S. foreign policy. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Our 27th president, William Howard Taft, has been relegated to a historical afterthought, if not a punchline. If he’s remembered at all, it’s for his enormous girth and periodic difficulties with bathtubs. Yet in this slim volume on our largest president, Jeffrey Rosen argues that Taft has much to teach us today. Our “most judicial president,” who later served as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, shared the Framers’ conception of the presidency as a constitutional rather than a popular office. In his single presidential term and his failed bid for reelection in the pivotal 1912 race, Taft staunchly opposed Teddy Roosevelt’s “stewardship” theory of the office, which empowered the president “to do anything that the needs of the nation demanded unless such action was forbidden by the Constitution or the laws.” The president’s authority, Taft countered, is limited to what the Constitution and the laws specifically grant, and to hold otherwise would lead to an imperial presidency.In his reluctance to rule by executive order or wage war without Congress — and in his resistance to popular passions — Taft serves both as a model of what a constitutional presidency could be and a reminder of the challenges facing that model in the modern era. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

On December 14, 2017, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) voted to repeal “net neutrality,” a set of Obama-era regulations that had only been enacted in 2015.The outcry was oversized. Racist memes featuring FCC chairman Ajit Pai, who spearheaded the repeal effort, flooded the internet, while grassroots activists invaded Pai’s neighborhood, placing pamphlets with his face on his neighbors’ doorsteps, peering through the windows of his house, and taking photos of his young children inside. Faced with death threats, Pai had to cancel speaking engagements in the months following the vote for fear of his safety.Minutes after the vote, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced his intent to lead a multistate lawsuit against the FCC to “stop illegal rollback of net neutrality.” Net neutrality supporters in more than 20 states quickly joined the suit. Powerful tech companies like Netflix, Reddit, Amazon, and Kickstarter called for the immediate restoration of net neutrality. Executive orders in New York and Montana imposed net neutrality requirements on internet service providers that had contracts with those states, and Washington recently became the first state to pass its own version of net neutrality. Even now, the debate continues, with Senate Democrats pushing to restore the net neutrality rules the FCC vote repealed.Yet what really has changed in the six months since the repeal vote?On Thursday, June 14, the six-month anniversary of the controversial FCC vote, please join the Cato Institute for a one-on-one interview with FCC chairman Ajit Pai. Pai will explain what net neutrality is, why he supported its repeal, and what comes next for the future of the internet. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The planned meeting between leaders of North Korea and the United States may help the Hermit Kingdom engage positively with a broader part of the world. After the meeting concludes, how should the US work to continue to lower tensions with North Korea? Join us for a live online discussion and ask your questions using #CatoConnects. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The private sector is stepping up to help young immigrant Dreamers while Congress continues to debate their future. Few Americans have done more than Donald Graham, the chairman of the board of Graham Holdings Company and former publisher of the Washington Post. Mr. Graham cofounded TheDream.US to fund college scholarships for hundreds of Dreamers, and he recently received significant donations to expand the program to thousands more. Graham will discuss the success of his initiative, his future plans, and his views on immigration policy and philanthropy. Marisela Tobar and Sadhana Singh, two Dreamers who graduated from Trinity Washington University this year after receiving scholarships from his foundation, will share their perspectives on how his program changed their lives, their hopes for the future, and what barriers they still face to attaining the American dream. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show how the health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer when it is subjected to the competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy. Prices will fall, quality will improve, and medicine will become more patient-friendly when consumers take control of their health care dollars and exert pressure from below.To see how this transformation will work, please join us in person or online to learn about the potent “medicine” Overcharged prescribes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show how the health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer when it is subjected to the competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy. Prices will fall, quality will improve, and medicine will become more patient-friendly when consumers take control of their health care dollars and exert pressure from below.To see how this transformation will work, please join us in person or online to learn about the potent “medicine” Overcharged prescribes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Why is America’s health care system so dysfunctional and expensive? Why do hospitalized patients receive bills laden with inflated charges that come out of the blue from out-of-network providers, or that demand payment for services that weren’t delivered? Why do we pay $600 for EpiPens that contain a dollar’s worth of medicine? Why is more than $1 trillion—one out of every three dollars that passes through the system—lost to fraud, wasted on services that don’t help patients, or otherwise misspent?In a new book published by the Cato Institute, Overcharged: Why Americans Pay Too Much for Health Care, Cato adjunct scholars Charles Silver and David Hyman answer these questions. Overcharged shows how government replaces competition and consumer choice with monopolies and third-party payment, making America’s health care system as expensive as possible.At this special book conference, the authors, joined by other national health care experts, will lay bare the root causes of our health care system’s ills and show how the health care sector will become more efficient and pro-consumer when it is subjected to the competitive forces that apply to the rest of the economy. Prices will fall, quality will improve, and medicine will become more patient-friendly when consumers take control of their health care dollars and exert pressure from below.To see how this transformation will work, please join us in person or online to learn about the potent “medicine” Overcharged prescribes. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Many critics think social media poses a novel threat to liberal democracy. Seeking to divide Americans, agents of the Russian government bought ads on Facebook. Extreme speech also finds a home on the internet, fostering conflicts that appear to generate more heat than light. Governments and consumers worry about “fake news” designed to misinform readers for fun, profit, and power. And yet social media has made more information more widely available at less cost than any technology since the printing press. Less reliant on gatekeepers than traditional media, the new purveyors of news arguably better satisfy the diverse preferences of the American electorate. Following up on the Project on Political Reform at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, we will consider the troubles and triumphs of the social media platforms that promise to host American political debate for generations. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.