October 28, 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 past week: - [Federal infrastructure spending](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/infrastructure-projects-fix-economy-dont-bank-it) has a long and painful history of pork-barrel politics and bureaucratic bungling, with money often going to wasteful and environmentally damaging projects. - [Chris Edwards responds](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/downside-federal-infrastructure-spending) to critics of his critique of federal infrastructure spending. - Mark Calabria thinks President [Obama’s new mortgage plan](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/random-thoughts-obama%E2%80%99s-new-mortgage-plan) should be held under water. - My thoughts on the spending reforms proposed by [Rick Perry](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/spending-reform-rick-perrys-plan). - The [president’s student loan plan](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/little-student-loan-relief-and-never-taxpayers): borrowers won’t get much relief, and taxpayers will get saddled with additional costs. - The [State Department](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/state-department-spreads-democracy-and-stupidity) spreads democracy—and money. 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/).