Post-Partisan Forum: Is The U.S. Tax System Rigged Against You?

Ordinary wage earners, even upper-middle-class professionals, pay up to 50% in combined federal taxes. Meanwhile, ProPublica's landmark investigation revealed that true tax rates for Warren Buffett, Jeff Bezos, and Michael Bloomberg range from 0.1 to 1.3%. All perfectly legally. How? Billionaires don't take salaries. They borrow against their ever-growing stock, fund lavish lifestyles with tax-free loans, and never trigger a taxable event. Salaries, it turns out, are for suckers.

It gets worse: A coordinated campaign by eighteen of America's wealthiest families systematically gutted the estate tax until it became essentially theatrical. Today the richest 1% holds $50 trillion in wealth, yet in 2024 the estate tax collected only $30 billion—0.06%. The reason? When billionaires die, the "angel of death loophole" simply wipes their heirs' tax slate clean.

Most troubling for our democracy: billionaires can donate stock to 501(c)(4) organizations they control, using them to dodge capital gains taxes, claim deductions, and forward those funds on to the politicians they want in office. Taxpayers are subsidizing oligarchic power.

Experts agree there are at least a dozen workable fixes: tax investment gains like wage income, close the angel of death loophole, and require that if a billionaire retains control, they still owe taxes on the proceeds.

Join us to discuss whether reform is possible--and what it would take to make it happen. Those who want to “read ahead” and arrive ready to dive deep, check out this podcast by the NYTimes: Ezra Klein, Ezra, "Our Tax System Should Make You Furious." April 17, 2026. https://tinyurl.com/yvx52tcf