THE BUDGET: Nixon's Struggle to Cut

ALMOST every day for the past five weeks, a drama that will change the nation's future spending priorities has been unfolding in a high-ceilinged Victorian room of Washington's Executive Office Building. Seated along one side of a 17-ft. table, facing into the glare of sunlight, budget examiners responsible for knowing the spending plans of every federal agency have defended their estimates. Seated across from them—and grilling them—have been their bosses, the top officials of the Office of Management and Budget, headed by Caspar Weinberger, who is known in Washington these days as...