CNS News – by Terence P. Jeffrey
The federal government spent a record $1,163,090,000,000 in the first three months of fiscal 2020 (October through December), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released Monday afternoon.
That was up $48,008,200,000 from the $1,115,081,800,000 (in constant December 2019 dollars) that the federal government spent in the first three months of fiscal 2019.
While spending a record amount of money in the first quarter of fiscal 2020, total federal tax collections were only the third highest in the nation’s history.
Although the $806,512,000,000 that the Treasury collected in total taxes in October through December was $17,651,230,000 more than $788,860,770,000 in total taxes (in constant December 2019 dollars) that the Treasury collected in October through December of fiscal 2019, it was $25,327,590,000 less than the all-time record $831,839,590,000 (in December 2019 dollars) that the Treasury collected in the first quarter of fiscal 2015.
Fiscal 2014 ranks second for total tax collections with $809,275,710,000 (in constant December 2019 dollars).
With the record spending in the October-through-December period exceeding the third-highest tax collections in history, the federal government ran a deficit of $356,578,000,000 during the period.
The Department of Health and Human Services led all federal agencies by spending $309,340,000,000 in October through December. The Social Security Administration was second with $285,056,000,000. The Defense Department was third with $187,348,000,000. Interest on Treasury securities was the fourth highest spending category with $160,187,000,000 in the October through December period.
(Numbers in this story were converted into constant December 2019 dollars using the Bureau of Labor Statistics inflation calculator.)
