Darman Remains Elusive on Tax Compromise;Budget Director Hints Less Rigid Stance on Campaign Pledge
When Bush administration budget director Richard G. Darman came before Congress for confirmation last year, he said that defining a tax increase was like recognizing a duck: If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, then it is a duck.</br></br>Yesterday, Rep. Lee H. Hamilton (D-Ind.) reexamined Darman in an effort to explore whether there was any room for compromise in the "no new taxes" pledge Bush made during his election campaign. Darman told the Joint Economic Committee that the administration wants to shift away from "the duck test" to "a growth test," suggesting that the White House might be willing to accept a tax increase that would promote economic growth.</br></br>"Let's apply a growth test that would get us out of political vocabulary into an economic vocabulary," Darman said.</br></br>But Darman remained elusive about how much room for compromise that would create. He denied that any tax increase would be rejected as "anti-growth," but when pressed for an example, he only cited the administration's proposed 2 percent user fee on aviation use.</br></br>When Rep. Stephen J. Solarz (D-N.Y.) asked how long the "no new taxes" pledge was intended to last, Darman said, "for the time being, forever."