Robert Rubin's inflated image

The following is a reply of mine to a column by Amity Shlaes regarding comments against maintaning the Bush tax cuts by the much lauded former Secy of the Treasury Robert Rubin

Dear Ms. Shlaes,
While I have not had the pleasure of hearing and reading your commentary too frequently, when I have had the opportunity to be in receipt of same, I am invariably impressed with the scholarship and gentility you bring to a discussion. It is with this prejudice that I am somewhat disappointed with your column on Mr. Rubin.

My concern is not founded upon the article as critique, but rather as an exculpatory brief for the former Secy of the Treasury. Perhaps my recollection of the 90s is suspect in this regard, but I have a different understanding of Rubin's affection for capital gains tax relief than your column implies. My recollection is of a man who used his considerable weight and prestige to discredit the macro - economic attributes of capital gains reduction when the Republicans proposed and passed that vital tax relief for the American people. He often challenged (to the point of ridicule) the pro-taxpayer, supply side notion that relief from onerous rates would propel economic growth or government revenue growth, thereby giving cover and credibility to the same extreme forces within the White House that Woodward plausibly cites him later restraining. Further, he certainly displayed little visceral understanding of the moral/ ethical truism of allowing American citizens to keep more of their hard earned money to invest, save or spend at their own discretion; unless they were large shareholders of Goldman Sachs who's acute concern over the repayment of high interest Mexican debt was eviscerated due to the handiwork of their former CEO and his generosity with U.S taxpayer credit!

I am not so naive or impractical as to not recognize that we could have done much worse in a Democrat administration than Mr. Rubin: and certainly I offer a begrudging acceptance that his mere reputation and lofty Wall Street stature did periodically provide a propitious affect on markets, and a moderating influence on democrat power - brokers including the President himself.

However, let us not purport this idea that deep in his heart, Mr. Rubin is an advocate of the American taxpayer, nor that he sought tax relief as a general policy imperative, or even as a general policy goal. Rather, with regard to your column's theme, allow me an ironic defense of Mr. Rubin against the charge that his rhetoric is inconsistent with his tenure as a public man, for to the contrary I believe his comments to be rhetorically consistent. His recent opine comports with past expressions of sentiment on taxation. So let us give this man credit for utilizing his reputation as Wall Street colossus to provide stability to an administration prone to the opposite, and for being most knowledgeable about intricate corporate, micro-economic issues. But being more politically pragmatic and more sympathetic to the GOP written budget/ tax cuts than Paul Begala does not warrant Robert Rubin being appelled as a pro-growth taxpayer hero...nor even as a friend!

Respectfully yours,
David J. Shagoury

Comments

[George Ajjan]

Well said cousin, and I love your rhetorical flair! Keep writing!