These modules develop two prevalent explanations among political scientists of who gets what in the budgetary process. Specifically, the problem of how an agency's level of appropriations changes over time is addressed. It is noted that budgeting is a political process in the classic sense, in that it elicits and embodies patterns of conflict and compensation centering on who gets what, when, and how and revolves around the allocation of limited resources to various recipients. The documents are designed to provide some applications of first-order linear difference equations. (MP)