Death by a Thousand Cuts: The Fight over Taxing Inherited Wealth

by Michael J. Graetz, Ian Shapiro

This fast-paced book by Yale professors Michael Graetz and Ian Shapiro unravels the following How is it that the estate tax, which has been on the books continuously since 1916 and is paid by only the wealthiest two percent of Americans, was repealed in 2001 with broad bipartisan support? The mystery is all the more striking because the repeal was not done in the dead of night, like a congressional pay raise. It came at the end of a multiyear populist campaign launched by a few individuals, and was heralded by its supporters as a signal achievement for Americans who are committed to the work ethic and the American Dream.


Graetz and Shapiro conducted wide-ranging interviews with the relevant members of congress, senators, staffers from the key committees and the Bush White House, civil servants, think tank and interest group representatives, and many others. The result is a unique portrait of American politics as viewed through the lens of the death tax repeal saga. Graetz and Shapiro brilliantly illuminate the repeal campaign's many fascinating and unexpected turns--particularly the odd end result whereby the repeal is slated to self-destruct a decade after its passage. They show that the stakes in this fight are exceedingly high; the very survival of the long standing American consensus on progressive taxation is being threatened.


Graetz and Shapiro's rich narrative reads more like a political drama than a conventional work of scholarship. Yet every page is suffused by their intimate knowledge of the history of the tax code, the transformation of American conservatism over the past three decades, and the wider political implications of battles over tax policy.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction

392 pages, Paperback

First published February 14, 2005

About the author

Michael J. Graetz is Isidor and Seville Sulzbacher Professor of Law and Columbia Alumni Professor of Tax Law at Columbia University and Professor of Law, Emeritus, at Yale Law School.

Reviews

[B · Rating 3 out of 5]

For most of the book, it seems like the authors believe the hype . . . That a group of relatively well-to-do but not megawealthy entrepeneurs rallied public opinion and a bipartisan group of leaders to eliminate the estate tax and that liberals could have stopped this with more folksy stories and by more aggressively raising the exemption.

By the end, it seems like the authors are singing a different and more plausible tune, but it's not clear why they print "the legend" for most of the book.

[Sarah]

Gave up. I just can’t give a shit about this right now.

[Atika · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sort of repetitive but good talk about how politicians and wealthy people manipulate the mass with half truths and lies, toy with their emotion to get to their end.

[Lauren · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's definitely inside baseball, but it's constructive inside baseball. Not just one of those DC gossip books about who did what. This book actually focuses on the internal dynamics of access and lobbying, and it squares pretty well with personal experience. That said, I do resent that they used "death tax" as a default term, instead of "estate tax."

[Lucas]

If you are at all interested in the political process, this book goes into great detail on one of the more interesting political fights in recent history. Great writing tells a compelling story and not academic at all.

[Stan Lanier · Rating 3 out of 5]

An insightful, though not necessarily trenchant, analysis and explanation what kind of nation we are vis a vis the political fight over inheritance taxes.