WASHINGTON INSIGHT

DARMAN UNDER FIRE: Divisions inside the Bush White House are deepening. Among the causes are the intensifying debate over next year’s federal budget and the issue of health care reform. When the White House last week stopped the presses on the budget, the clear loser was Budget Director Richard G. Darman. The action was taken to remove a Darman-backed provision to begin taxing health care benefits received by highly paid employees. Darman joked to reporters that he had been “using his eraser all day” to remove the offending language. . . . But the incident clearly represented a rebuke for the controversial budget chief, who is said to be locked in a power struggle with new White House Chief of Staff Samuel K. Skinner. . . . Congressional Republicans and Administration conservatives don’t like Darman’s efforts to cap benefits received by the wealthy. Some Republicans see Darman as the principal obstacle to continuation of Ronald Reagan’s supply-side economic policies and are urging the White House to oust him.