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"We need to go back to the day where we actually do ask everyone to pay their fair share--and that includes the wealthiest among us," says Heather Boushey, Senior Economist for the Center for American Progress. She joins us today to unpack President Obama's April 13 address on fiscal policy and deficit reduction. As an embattled middle class continues to struggle with having basic needs such as employment and health care met, Heather says that the budget's effects will be more than just numbers on a page. So just how much potential is there to heal or to harm? And will top earners finally be asked to pony up? Heather joins us to weigh in on President Obama's plan, and what in it may help--or may not help--an already stricken middle class. "We're able to maintain the illusion that we're fighting a war on drugs and that we're protecting young people we're doing it on the backs of poor people. Poor people of color, rural poor people, poor people who don't have access to jobs. We have one group of people who we've said that their employment is going to be the keepers of these other people that we've locked up for drug use because they don't have jobs and you don't have jobs ever. We've built a whole system out of policing, locking up and controlling poor people," says Deborah Small, who's dedicated her life to fighting for a responsible drug policy that helps, not hurts. Laura sat down with Deborah recently for some frank talk on our drug war failings, what a real drug policy would look like, and why more and more leaders are calling for an end to prohibition. And just this week, the NAACP is out with a new study, called Misplaced Priorities, on the consequences of the War on Drugs. Finally, Paul Mason of the BBC spoke to us about "graduates with no future," who have been at the center of protest movements around the world. If we keep cutting the future out from under young people here, Laura asks, what choices will they have left? Distributed by Tubemogul.

"I think that we're in a society where art still is threatening, but at some point I think that we can look at when art is still being questioned or being sanctioned or being funded, then we need to look at that work that is being deliberated over because it's speaking to something that is happening in culture," says performance artist Karen Finley, whose lawsuit against the National Endowment for the Arts made her into a national icon against her will after her grant was denied on the basis of the subject matter of her art. In her new book, The Reality Shows, and in her performances, Finley takes on different personae to explore traumas, and teaches people to get in touch with their own experiences. Finley joins Laura in studio for a conversation about art, trauma, our culture's perception of women, and much, much more. In the past days and weeks we've seen some very young people protesting in the streets, squares and statehouses around the world. But what becomes of children who live through that reformation or regime change? Our documentary of the week is My Perestroika, and it tells the story of the last days of the USSR through the eyes of a group of former schoolmates who came of age as the world around them changed. The filmmaker is Robin Hessman, and the film is currently playing at festivals around the country. Comedian Lee Camp visited Scotland and was shocked by what he saw: college students protesting? What's that all about? But he's realized something more important as well--maybe the key to ending police brutality of protesters is putting them in new outfits. It seems to work all right for the Scots... Distributed by Tubemogul.

"We were told as diplomats, 'Don't ever put anything in a cable you wouldn't want on the front page of a newspaper.' It shows that they're a lot of arrogant people, that the system itself wasn't checking itself," says Ann Wright, Retired United States Army Colonel and former State Department official, of the latest documents released from WikiLeaks. Meanwhile, several of the diplomatic cables released depict possibly illegal actions by the U.S. government, and Wright notes that the chances of anyone being held accountable are slim.Ann Wright joins Laura in studio to discuss the latest releases from WikiLeaks, what they tell us about the Defense and State departments, and what should happen--but probably won't--to the people implicated therein.Democrats were trying to get the focus back on the parts of their agenda that could actually get through the lame duck Senate this week--that is, until the latest WikiLeaks documents got out. Now once again, the media's focus has shifted, but that doesn't make the economic situation any less dire.Democratic strategist Karen Finney and Nation contributor and author of Herding Donkeys Ari Berman join Laura to discuss the situation in D.C., the Democratic agenda, and what hope, if any, there is for passing some last bits of legislation before the new Congress sweeps in.Finally, Dave Zirin thinks it's high time the NCAA suspended Notre Dame's football team. Why? They've lost their respect for something far more precious than a game.

The current stage of the recession sees state budgets hitting crisis points around the country, and one of the areas targeted for cuts has been state univerisities. Students, already dealing with prohibitive levels of debt, have been coming together to protest tuition hikes and budget cuts in some of the largest student protests since the 1960s. Is this a new era for student activism? Did the Obama campaign train young organizers to turn their skills onto their local campus, or is it just the pressure of paying the bills? Christian Ragland, Student President at Pennsylvania State University, and Angus Johnston, founder of StudentActivism.net, join us to discuss.