Over at Downsizing Government, we focused on the following issues this week:

• The U.S. Postal Service is bleeding red ink, but a postal union says it wants “more” wages and benefits. Having watched the unionized workforces at GM and Chrysler receive preferential treatment from the federal government, there’s little incentive for them not to ask for more.
• President Obama announced his intention to take the country $50 billion deeper into debt in order to finance more public infrastructure projects. Why not give privately funded and operated infrastructure a chance?
• A new study finds that federal subsidies to the states result in higher future state taxes. This has important implications for state fiscal policy considering the recent rise in federal subsidies to state and local government.
• By producing a vague “plan” to cut a relatively small amount of spending while avoiding the more politically volatile issues of entitlements and defense, Republican House Minority Leader John Boehner is signaling that he’s apparently content to ride to victory in the fall on the back of an unpopular president.