(CNSNews.com) – The federal government set new records for taxing and spending through the first nine months of fiscal 2021 (October through June), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.
Federal taxes hit a record $3,056,078,000,000 while federal spending climbed to a record $5,294,027,000,000.
The resulting deficit of $2,237,949,000,000 was the second highest ever for the first nine months of the year, falling below the $2,892,260,760,000 deficit (in constant June 2021 dollars) that the federal government ran in the first nine months of fiscal 2020.
When the historical October-through-June tax revenues are adjusted for inflation into June 2021 dollars (using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator), the second-highest-ever tax revenues for the first nine months of a fiscal year came in fiscal 2015. That year the federal government collected $2,785,886,470,000 (in constant June 2021 dollars) in the October-through-June period.
When the October-through-June spending numbers are adjusted into May 2021 dollars, the second-highest spending during that period came in fiscal 2020, when the Treasury spent $5,274,180,280,000 (in constant June 2021 dollars).
Table 9 of the Monthly Treasury Statement, which lists tax receipts by source and expenditures by function, lists the largest spending category so far in this fiscal year as “income security.” The federal government has laid out $1,364,613,000,000 for this function in the October-through-June period.
The House Budget Committee describes “income security” spending as follows: “Function 600 (Income Security) consists of programs that keep Americans healthy and safe, separated into six categories: general retirement and disability insurance, federal employee retirement and disability (including military retirement); unemployment compensation; housing assistance; nutrition assistance; and other income security, which includes programs like foster care, Supplemental Security Income, and the earned income and child tax credits.”
In addition to the $1,364,613,000,000 that the Monthly Treasury Statement says the federal government has spent so far this fiscal year on “income security,” the government has also spent $849,385,000,000 on Social Security and $519,113,000,000 on Medicare.
Defense spending in the first nine months of this fiscal year was $569,140,000,000.
