MONDAY, JULY 30, 2012
Pulitzer-Winning Reporting Duo Don Barlett and James Steele on "The Betrayal of the American Dream" (Part 1)
http://www.democracynow.org/2012/7/30/pulitzer_winning_reporting_duo_don_barlett
The famed award-winning investigative reporting team of Donald Barlett
and James Steele have just published a new book, "The Betrayal of the
American Dream," a followup to their landmark bestseller, "America: What
Went Wrong?" As Republicans and Democrats continue disputing who should
bear the brunt of the tax burden, Barlett and Steele argue that
America’s middle class has been decimated over the years due to policies
governing not only taxes but also bank regulations, trade deficits and
pension funds. Their book chronicles how the American middle class has
been systematically impoverished and its prospects thwarted in favor of a
new ruling elite. Barlett and Steele have worked together for more than
40 years, sharing two Pulitzer Prizes and two National Magazine Awards.
The duo join us for the hour to discuss the assault on the middle
class, the great tax heist, deregulation, the outsourcing of U.S. jobs
by companies like Boeing and Apple, and the end of retirement. "People
are going to have to work forever, and yet what are those jobs going to
be? What are they going to pay? And it also puts pressure then on people
coming into the workforce. How are they going to get a job if people
are having to work between 65 and 75 years old?," Steele says. The duo
also discuss their past reporting on the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake
City, headed by the Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, and
note he headed "an Olympic committee where that entire operation raided
the federal Treasury like no other Olympics in history." Click here to see part two of this interview. [Original includes rush transcript]
Guests:James Steele, contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Steele and his reporting partner Donald Barlett have won virtually every major national journalism award, including two Pulitzer Prizes and two National Magazine Awards. Their latest book is The Betrayal of the American Dream.
Donald Barlett, contributing editor at Vanity Fair. Barlett and his reporting partner James Steele have won virtually every major national journalism award, including two Pulitzer Prizes and two National Magazine Awards. Their latest book is The Betrayal of the American Dream.
