April 15, 2011 3:36PM # This Week in Government Failure By [Tad DeHaven](https://www.cato.org/people/tad-dehaven) --- SHARE Over at [Downsizing the Federal Government](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/), we focused on the following issues this week: - If there’s this much [resistance to a budget haircut](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/not-biggest-cut-history), how can we hope to agree on surgery that would actually reduce spending, balance the budget, and avert national bankruptcy? - Policymakers looking for spending cuts are finally turning an eye toward [farm subsidies](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/farm-subsidies-be-cut). - Despite the budget cuts agreed to this week, [total federal outlays will still rise](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/despite-gop-cuts-spending-increases) by approximately $177 billion. - President Obama wants to get reelected, and he will need a strong economy to succeed. [Penalizing millionaires won’t help](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/a-sure-way-lose-re-election), but partnering with Republicans on corporate tax reforms and spending cuts would boost the economy and his job prospects. - [Spending increased](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/federal-spending-trend) an average $170 billion a year over the last decade. Thus, the $40 billion cut reverses out no more than one-quarter of one year’s worth of the last decade of increases. - [A new Cato video](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/cato-video-minuscule-budget-cuts) does an excellent job of visualizing the minuscule spending cuts Republicans and Democrats agreed to this week. Follow Downsizing the Federal Government on Twitter ([@DownsizeTheFeds](http://twitter.com/DownsizeTheFeds)) and connect with us [on Facebook](http://www.facebook.com/pages/Downsizing-the-Federal-Government/26635669039). ##### Related Tags [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/).