Recession
"Production as measured by Gross Domestic Product (GDP), employment, investment spending, capacity utilization, household incomes and business profits all fall during recessions."
Additionally, it causes tax revenues to fall.
From the same source: "Governments usually respond to recessions by adopting expansionary macroeconomic policies, such as increasing money supply, increasing government spending and decreasing taxation."
Sadly, we can't do a very good job of increasing the money supply because Bush and Company left our interest rates in the toilet. It is going to be tough getting out of this one. And government spending is one of the few tools that we have left.