The federal government took in $176.36 billion dollars less than it spent for the month ending October 31.

As an old codger, I can fondly recall the days when that number was an abomination of a deficit for an entire year. Now Obama has made it a monthly monstrosity.

Meena Thiruvengadam and Darrell Hughes of the Wall Street Journal put that number in perspective:

The October deficit figure is wider than the Congressional Budget Office's estimate for a $175 billion deficit in the month and wider than the $165.9 billion expected by analysts surveyed by Dow Jones Newswires.

The Treasury on Thursday also revised September's deficit to a slightly narrower $46.57 billion, from a previously reported $46.61 billion. Even with the revision, the U.S. in fiscal year 2009 posted a record total budget deficit of near $1.4 trillion -- three times its previous record.

At the equivalent of 9.9% of gross domestic product, the figure is the widest U.S. deficit as a share of GDP since 1945.

The staggering number has had U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner pledging to rein in the deficit as the nation's economy recovers.

The U.S. at this point is expected to post a fiscal year 2010 deficit similar to that posted in fiscal year 2009.

The government paid $17.93 billion in net interest last month on the federal debt. Net interest on the federal debt excludes interest paid on nonmarketable government securities held by federal trust funds, such as Social Security.

With trillion dollar deficits as far out as we can see, we will probably have to start importing red ink.