During February, the federal government spent money it does not have at the rate of nearly $5.5 million a minute. That works out to the price of a reasonably nice new home every second. And there is no indication that Washington is about to break the habit of spending like there is no tomorrow. The federal spending deficit hit a new record last month: $220.9 billion. That represents the difference between what the government spent and the revenue it received. According to the White House, the deficit for the current fiscal year will total $1.56 trillion. That is about $5,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. Though both presidents and members of Congress — of both major political parties — claim frequently that they are worried about deficit spending, nothing ever seems to get done about it. Clearly, a real sense of concern simply is not present in Washington.