Slate Money Money Talks: How Our Tax Code Makes the Rich Richer
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Oct 28, 2025 Ray D. Madoff, a distinguished law professor and tax law expert, joins the hosts to unveil how the U.S. tax code disproportionately benefits the wealthy. She reveals strategies that allow the richest Americans to effectively dodge taxes, highlighting the origins and purposes of the estate tax. Discussion includes shifts in public opinion against this tax and the loopholes that have emerged. Madoff also proposes innovative solutions, like taxing gains at death, offering a compelling critique of existing policies.
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When Taxes Once Curbed Dynasties
- The estate and income taxes once worked together to curb dynastic wealth from 1913 through the 1970s.
- From the 1990s onward, legal and political changes allowed wealthy Americans to largely opt out of the tax system.
Billionaires, Frank Luntz, And The 'Death Tax'
- Eighteen billionaire families organized to kill the estate tax and hired Frank Luntz to rebrand it as the "death tax."
- The campaign used emotional messaging about families, farms, and businesses to shift public opinion and policy.
Quiet Quitting Destroyed The Estate Tax
- Congress stopped systematically closing estate-tax loopholes after 1990, allowing estate planners to build avoidance techniques.
- By 2024 the estate tax provided only about 0.5% of federal revenue, reflecting its collapse.
