Object

Administration's Budget Submission

Josh presents this document in the Roosevelt Room to OMB aides and the First Lady, citing its $80 million figure as a negotiation anchor to settle at $70 million. He has quietly removed a $12 million earmark for CDC immunization education promised to Mrs. Bartlet, altering the proposal without prior notice to Max or others present.

1 appearances

Purpose

Anchors budget negotiations by setting a high initial figure for compromise

Significance

Josh's secret edit removing the First Lady's earmark sparks Max's fury and chase into the hallway, exposing fault lines between expediency and loyalty amid White House budget pressures

Appearances in the Narrative

When this object appears and how it's used

1 moments

S4E17 · Red Haven's On Fire

The $12 Million Trade — Pragmatism vs. Loyalty

The Administration's Budget Submission is invoked as the negotiation anchor: Josh says 'we'll tell them the budget submission's at 80', and it is the document from which the $12M earmark has been quietly removed. Narratively, it is the tangible artifact where political trades are written and concealed.

Before: Drafted and circulating as the administration's negotiating posture; originally associated with the earmark promise (implicitly or explicitly committed to the First Lady).

After: Presented conceptually as set at $80 as an opening demand; the $12M earmark has been removed from whatever internal version Josh controls, making it no longer protected in the submission.

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