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

• There’s more corruption at Amtrak, but Congress probably won’t hold any “show trials” for Amtrak management since it’s not a private business.
• A new study find that the government’s “cash for clunkers” program had no long-run effect on auto purchases. It’s hard to believe this clunker of a program still has defenders.
• Federal payments to individuals as a share of the economy has reached an all-time high after 70 years of steady growth. Unfortunately, all those free lunches aren’t actually “free.”
• The battle over the administration’s plan for a national system of high-speed rail is heating up.
• The head of the Federal Housing Finance Agency throws cold water on the horrible idea of having the federal government explicitly back most mortgages.