Over at Downsizing Government, we focused on the following issues this week:

• Despite the record $1.6 trillion deficit this year, and the consensus that exploding spending and debt is pushing the nation toward catastrophe, the Obama administration completely chickened-out on spending reforms in its new budget.
• The George W. Bush administration ushered in a new era of big government. The Obama administration has built on Bush’s profligacy, and the president’s new fiscal 2012 budget proposal would further cement the trend.
• Obama’s new budget proposes slightly more discretionary and entitlement spending for next year than did his last budget!
• Like countless other individuals and interest groups, state and local government officials have become addicted to federal taxpayer money. This addiction has encouraged irresponsibility and profligacy at all levels of government.
• It’s important to explore the costly failures of big spending programs such as the stimulus because the next time the economy goes into a downcycle the Keynesians, sadly, will be back on Capitol Hill pushing their expensive solutions and further bankrupting the nation.