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(CNSNews.com) – The federal deficit topped $1 trillion in the first six months of fiscal 2023 (October through March), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released today.
This was despite the fact that federal tax revenues in the first six months of this fiscal year were $2,048,196,000,000, which was the second-highest in the nation’s history (when compared to the inflation-adjusted numbers for the tax revenues collected in the first six months of previous fiscal years).
From February to March, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement, the fiscal 2023 federal deficit increased by $378,077,000,000, climbing from $722,627,000,000 to $1,100,704,000,000.
So far, in fiscal 2023, while the federal government collected $2,048,196,000,000 in taxes, it spent $3,148,900,000,000—resulting in the deficit of $1,100,704,000,000.
When the historical budget numbers are adjusted for inflation into March 2023 dollars, it turns out that this year’s October-through-March federal deficit is the fourth largest in the nation’s history. In fiscal 2021, during the COVID pandemic, the October-through-March deficit was $1,944,334,490,000 in constant March 2023 dollars. That was the largest deficit the federal government has ever run in the first six months of a fiscal year.
The second-largest was in October-through-March of fiscal 2009, when the federal government ran a deficit that was $1,357,706,460,000 in constant March 2023 dollars. The third-largest was in October-through-March of fiscal 2011, when the federal government ran a deficit of $1,120,280,830,000 in constant March 2023 dollars.
In October-through-March of fiscal 2012, the federal government also ran a deficit that exceeded $1 trillion in constant March 2023 dollars. But that fiscal year’s first-six-month deficit of $1,024,999,220,000 in constant March 2023 dollars was less than this year’s six-month deficit of $1,100,704,000,000.
The $2,048,196,000,000 that the federal government collected in tax dollars in the first six months of this fiscal year was only exceeded by the $2,236,043,500,000 (in constant March 2023 dollars) that the federal government collected in taxes in the first six months of fiscal 2022.
This fiscal year and last fiscal year are the only ones in the nation’s history when federal tax collections have exceeded $2 trillion in the first six months of a fiscal year.
The Department of Health and Human Services led all government departments and agencies in spending during the first six months of this fiscal year. It spent $843,257,000,000 from October through March.
It was followed by the Social Security Administration, which spent $685,876,000,000; and the Department of the Treasury, which spent $540,813,000,000—including $384,227,000,000 in interest on Treasury securities issued to fund the federal debt.
The Department of Defense-Military Programs was fourth in federal spending with total outlays of $386,255,000,000.
(Historical numbers in this story were converted into constant March 2023 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.)
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