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

• It should be clear that we, as a society, would be better off abandoning efforts to socially engineer a specific homeownership rate, either for the population in general or by racial group.
• The GOP should insist on the $100 billion in initial cuts they promised, and also demand passage of a legal cap on overall federal spending.
• Perhaps we should start calling farm subsidies “landowner subsidies.”
• How much money do federal taxpayers lose to food stamp fraud each year? Nobody really knows.
• A new House rule requires members of the 112th Congress to cite specific constitutional authority when introducing any new bill or program. A brief summary of how the General Welfare, Commerce, and Necessary and Proper Clauses was understood by the Framers is in order.