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

• On getting out of Afghanistan.
• $61 billion in spending cuts amounts to less than a third of what taxpayers will pay in interest on the debt alone this year.
• The political stakes in the latest debt ceiling game are high. The consequences of failing to use it as an opportunity to start reining in the federal government are even higher.
• The IRS is handing out “free” candy.
• New data from the Federal Aviation Administration shows that reported air traffic control errors have increased by 81 percent since 2007.