November 18, 2011 1:59PM # 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 *Washington Post* does a nice job describing how Solyndra is just one of many [energy subsidy failures](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/federal-energy-failures) of recent decades. - The cheerleaders for [federal redistribution schemes](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/coburn-report-subsidies-millionaires) would have the public believe that it’s all about “helping those in need” when in fact it’s really about fostering dependency on taxpayers. - Chris Preble on [cutting military spending](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/cutting-military-spending-rethinking-grand-strategy) and rethinking our grand strategy. - U.S. policymakers should be asking: What have other countries [privatized](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/ppps-and-privatization-infrastructure) that we can privatize in this country? - Chris Edwards on crumbling bridges and [infrastructure](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/crumbling-bridges-and-infrastructure-fearmongering) fear-mongering. - The [“minibus” spending bill](http://www.downsizinggovernment.org/thoughts-minibus-spending-bill) is largely business as usual. 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/).