The Dismantling of the U. S.'s Middle Class.

Investigative reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele's new book is Critical Condition: How Health Care in America Became Big Business, and Bad Medicine. Bartlett and Steel have worked together for 30 years, winning two Pulitzer Prizes. They are currently editors-at-large at Time magazine

The two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporters have written together since the 1970s for several major newspapers and magazines. Their latest piece covers Native American-owned casinos and appears in this month's Time magazine. This September, they also published The Great American Tax Dodge: How Spiraling Fraud and Avoidance Are Killing Fairness, Destroying the Income Tax, and Costing You.

Philadelphia Inquirer investigative reporters Donald Barlett and James Steele. The two talk with Terry Gross about why campaign promises related to taxes should be carefully scrutinized. They say if you want to know how a 15 percent tax cut would help you, you need to look at how it would impact all of the taxes you pay. They say that often the highest tax rates are found at the state or local level.