June 3, 2011 12:09PM 

# This Week in Government Failure 

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

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A fierce storm from Mother Nature killed my Internet connection last Friday (I didn’t see any black helicopters, so I’m assuming it was her). Therefore, the following are issues we focused on over the last *two* weeks at [Downsizing the Federal Government](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/):

- [Federal employees](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/federal-pension-reform) enjoy benefits that aren’t available to most private sector workers.
- A bottom-up approach to [transportation policy](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/transportation-top-down-or-bottom) would save taxpayers money and increase mobility.
- Trims to discretionary [agriculture programs](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/agriculture-cuts-usher-apocalypse) leads one congressman to channel his inner Harold Camping.
- [Education policy](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/race-cradle): the Obama administration wants a race to the cradle.
- Only six other Republicans voted for [Sen. Rand Paul’s plan](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/senate-vote-rand-pauls-budget) to balance the budget in five years through spending cuts.
- Two key House Republicans want to halt [Amtrak’s dream of high-speed rail](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/house-repubicans-target-amtrak) in its tracks.
- Chris Edwards on [tax cuts, loopholes, and the size of government](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/tax-cuts-loopholes-and-government-size).
- The federal government’s [housing stimulus](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/housing-stimulus-fails) fails.

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##### Related Tags 

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

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