September 17, 2010 4:26PM 

# 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:

- There’s more [corruption at Amtrak](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/more-corruption-amtrak), but Congress probably won’t hold any “show trials” for Amtrak management since it’s not a private business.
- A new study find that the government’s “[cash for clunkers](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/cash-4-clunkers-fails-again)” program had no long-run effect on auto purchases. It’s hard to believe this clunker of a program still has defenders.
- [Federal payments to individuals](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/government-increasingly-free) as a share of the economy has reached an all-time high after 70 years of steady growth. Unfortunately, all those free lunches aren’t actually “free.”
- The battle over the administration’s plan for a national system of [high-speed rail](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/high-speed-rail-battle) is heating up.
- The head of the [Federal Housing Finance Agency](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/housing-regulator-has-doubts) throws cold water on the horrible idea of having the federal government explicitly back most mortgages.

##### Related Tags 

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

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