November 20, 2009 12:52PM 

# This Week in Government Failure 

By [Tad DeHaven](https://www.cato.org/people/tad-dehaven) 

---

<a class="js-popover-trigger cursor-pointer popover-trigger" data-bs-placement="bottom" data-bs-trigger="click" id="popover-trigger"> 

SHARE 

</a> 

Over at [Downsizing Government](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org), we focused on the following issues this week:

- [The federal government is assuming a larger share of the Medicaid bill](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/federal-assumption-medicaid-costs).
- [General Electric might eventually need to be renamed *Government* Electric](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/government-electric).
- [The government’s mail monopoly lost $3.8 billion last fiscal year and could lose more this year](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/government-mail-loses-38-billion).
- [The $98 billion in improper payments made by the federal government last year undermines the case for expanding its role in subsidizing health care](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/98-billion-improper-payments).
- [Cost overruns in the British government mirror problems in the U.S. government](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/cost-overruns-its-same-britain).

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

[![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) 
This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).