July 16, 2010 2:46PM 

# This Week in Government Failure 

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

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

- Thanks to the postal unions, the [U.S. Postal Service’s](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/usps-labor-inflexibility) utilization of part-time workers is below UPS, FedEx, and its international counterparts.
- Senate Republicans want agitated voters to view their support for a [discretionary spending cap](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/gop-spending-cap) as evidence that the party is serious about out-of-control spending and deficits. But capping discretionary spending at the already exorbitant levels that Republicans helped reach isn’t exactly a big reform.
- Republicans and Democrats are both guilty of abusing the “[emergency](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/emergency-spending)” designation to ram through more spending.
- HUD secretary Shaun Donovan calls [public housing](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/huds-public-housing-proposal) a “precious asset.” We’re not joking.
- Does anyone think the White House economic team was going to produce estimates that *didn’t* show substantial [job creation](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/white-houses-job-creation-figures) resulting from the stimulus?

##### Related Tags 

[Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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