The Washington Post is running a multi-part series on Vice President Dick Cheney and his impact on federal policies. Today, the series' authors, Jo Becker and Barton Gellman, examine the veep's role in influencing domestic policy. This section about the budget-making process is enlightening:

An Analytic Framework for the FY 2008 Budget Battle

We've put up an analysis of the Hamilton Project's understanding of government and inequality. If you've been tracking our blogging on the subject, the thesis of the paper will come as no surprise: their attitude about government (it's incapable of doing much good) and inequality (it's probably fair and good for everyone, mostly) isn't particularly helpful.

With the Bush administration trying to effect a sudden shift from spendthrift to scrooge this budget season, the time is right to sort out fiscal myth from reality. The administration has issued shrill warnings that "the Democrats' budget would lead to spending and tax increases that put economic growth and a balanced budget at risk" (per OMB, June 12). In fact, the administration has demanded an increase in FY 2008 discretionary spending of seven percent over FY 2007; by contrast, the Democrats' proposed increase is a whopping nine percent, as we noted last week.