November 11, 2011 3:26PM # 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: - The “government efficiency” snake-oil salesmanship from politicians has become tiresome, especially when it comes from high-profile Republicans like [Mitt Romney](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/%E2%80%98government-efficiency%E2%80%99-trying-turn-cats-dogs). - [An establishment commission](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/uh-oh-bipartisan-housing-commission-announced) is planning to “reform the nation’s housing policy by crafting a package of realistic and actionable policy recommendations” for the Beltway establishment’s consideration. Hold onto your wallets, taxpayers. - Certain people saw the “[Christmas Tree Tax](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/gop-fingerprints-christmas-tree-tax)” as an opportunity to further partisan aims rather than provoke a discussion and debate on the proper role of the federal government. - On so-called [shallow loss](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/farm-subsidies-and-risk-management) proposals to provide subsidies for farms in cases when farm revenues fall slightly below the record high levels of the past few years. - Politicians who fixate on “[government efficiency](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/obama-demonstrates-why-%E2%80%98government-efficiency%E2%80%99-a-joke)” probably aren’t truly interested in reducing the size and scope of government. 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/).