WASHINGTON -- If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, watch your wallet.
Richard Darman, George Bush's pick as budget director, tried to answer questions at his Senate confirmation hearings about whether George Bush might have to raise taxes.
Darman and members of the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee found themselves discussing what would, and would not, be considered a new tax. They decided that the 'duck rule' applied -- if it looks like a duck, walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it is a duck.
Translation: an idea for new money that looks like a new tax to average people really is a new tax -- regardless of what technical name it is given.
The discussion became so thick with references to ducks that Sen. John Glenn, D-Ohio, surprised Darman by presenting him with a trophy of sorts -- three plastic yellow ducks glued to a board.
The largest duck had a sign around its neck that said: 'The duck test -- if it quacks, it's a tax.'
Two smaller ducks had signs around their necks representing two expensive federal problems: the cleanup of wastes from the nation's nuclear weapons plants and other unfunded federal liabilities.
Ducks entered the discussion again when Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., pressed Darman on whether adding state and local workers to the Medicare system would constitute a tax increase.
'Is it a duck?' Levin asked.
'I need some sort of new metaphor,' replied Darman, who said he did not think most people would consider it a new tax.
'No,' said Levin. 'I want to stick with the old one. I don't want to change metaphors in the middle of the stream. Is it a duck?'
Darman said he thinks Bush 'accepts the duck test' on what is - and isn't -- a new tax.
