Last week, I said that if Congress has to make cuts, we should embrace the idea of ridding ourselves of wasteful giveaways to the fossil fuel industry. Here's an idea. Let’s cut the Master Limited Partnership loophole and fossil fuel subsidies.

Dr. Algernon Austin is the Director of the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy (PREE) at the Economic Policy Institute. As the director of PREE, Dr. Austin oversees reports and policy analysis in the economic condition of America's people of color. 

Over the past decade, Jeff Cruz has worked has worked on campaigns in more than a dozen states and has served as a policy advisor to Members of Congress and as an associate director in the White House.

Leticia Miranda is the associate director of the Economic and Employment Policy Project at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR), the largest national Hispanic civil rights and advocacy organization in the United States.  The Economic and Employment Policy Project provides NCLR’s perspective on employment, energy, retirement, and poverty policy at the federal level.

Dr. Jared Bernstein discusses economic and social insurance reforms, the need for income security, closing the education and wealth gap, and promoting a vibrant middle class at the 2011 Color of Wealth Policy Summit.

Dr. Maya Rockeymoore interviews Meizhu Lui, former Director of the Closing the Racial Wealth Gap Initiative at the Insight Center for Community and Economic Development, to discuss the racial wealth gap, asset building and economic disparities among whites and people of color.

Anne E. Price has spent 20 years working in a wide range of areas including child welfare, hunger, welfare reform, workforce development, community development and higher education. She is the director of the Closing the Racial Wealth Gap (GRWG) Initiative at the Insight Center for Community Economic Development in Oakland, California. The Insight Center is a national research, consulting, and legal organization dedicated to building economic health in vulnerable communities.

Mr. Sarun Chan of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia discusses economic issues and the wealth gap between White communities and people of color and how securing an education for immigrant youth can impact future economic development.

Dr. C. Nicole Mason  of the Women of Color Policy Network at New York University-Wagner discusses youth programs that promote job growth and career development to overcome the racial wealth gap and ensure economic security at the 2011 Color of Wealth Policy Summit in Washington, D.C.

Dr. William Spriggs, Assistant Secretary for Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, discusses the importance of homeownership, income security and social insurance reform for women and people of color.