The unmentionable problem

With the financial system going into meltdown, who is talking about the financial mess the US government is now facing? Good time for a fiscal stimulus, I'd say.

The U.S. government turned in a $175.56 billion budget deficit for February, a record for any month, as federal spending grew but a slowing economy caused receipts to fall 12.1 percent from a year earlier, the U.S. Treasury said on Wednesday.

The February gap marked a 46.3 percent increase over the previous all-time single-month deficit of $119.99 billion in February 2007 and soundly exceeded Wall Street economists' consensus estimate of a $160.0 billion deficit in a Reuters poll.

February receipts fell to $105.72 billion from $120.31 billion in February 2007, the Treasury said, as both corporate and individual income tax payments slowed. February outlays grew 17.1 percent to $281.29 billion, a record for February, from $240.30 billion in February 2007, the Treasury said.