Why is it that abolishing the estate tax is on the public agenda? Bob Thompson looks a "a group of wealthy families in Southern California" who, in the early 1990s, hired "a very sophisticated consultant." Patricia Soldano [3] heads the Center for the Study of Taxation [4] and the Policy and Taxation Group [5], which lobbies for estate tax repeal along with former Senate Finance Committee chairman Bob Packwood. "To support her anti-tax efforts, Soldano has enlisted about 65 wealthy families in 25 states," Thompson writes, including reportedly the Mars candy and Gallo wine families. Soldano herself says, "We don't disclose our membership to anybody."