(CNSNews.com) – The federal government taxed away more money, spent more money and ran a bigger deficit in the first half of fiscal 2015 than it did in the first half of fiscal 2014, according to the Congressional Budget Office.
“The federal government ran a budget deficit of $430 billion for the first half of fiscal year 2015, CBO estimates–$17 billion more than the shortfall recorded in the same span last year,” the CBO said in its Monthly Budget Review for March 2015, which was published April 8. “Both revenues and outlays were about 7 percent higher than the amounts recorded in the first six months of fiscal year 2014.”
The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and ends on Sept. 30.
In the first six months of fiscal 2014, the government took in approximately $1,323,000,000,000 in revenue, according to CBO. In the first six months of this fiscal year, it took in approximately $1,420,000,000,000—an increase of $98,000,000,000.
Meanwhile, the federal government spent approximately $1,736,000,000,000 in the first six months of fiscal 2014. It spent approximately $1,851,000,000,000 in the first six months of the fiscal year—an increase of $115,000,000,000 over last year.
Last year, the government ran a deficit of $413 billion in the first six months of the fiscal year. This year, it ran a deficit of $430 billion—a $17 billion increase over last year.
The biggest source of additional tax revenue for the federal government was the individual income tax. In the first six months of fiscal 2014, Americans paid the federal government approximately $585,000,000,000 in individual income taxes. In the first six months of fiscal 2015, Americans paid $642,000,000,000 in individual income taxes—an increase of $57 billion (or 9.7 percent) from fiscal 2014.
Corporate income tax payments had a higher percentage increase than individual income tax payments—but did not yield as much an increase in actual revenue as the individual income tax.
In the first six months of fiscal 2014, businesses paid the federal government approximately $118,000,000,000 in corporate income taxes. In the first six months of fiscal 2015, they paid approximately $133,000,000,000 in corporate income taxes. That was a 12.8 percent increase from 2014, but only an additional $15,000,000,000 in tax revenues.
Payroll tax payments increased only 3.7 percent—but brought the federal government $18,000,000,000 in additional revenues, rising from $490,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2014 to $509,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2015.
Overall tax revenues increased 7.4 percent from the first half of 2014 to the first half of 2015—with total receipts rising from $1,323,000,000,000 in the first six months of fiscal 2014 to $1,420,000,000,000 in the first six months of fiscal 2015.
Despite this windfall in additional tax revenue, the federal government ran a bigger deficit in the first half of this fiscal year because federal spending increased even more than federal tax revenues.
Total federal outlays climbed from $1,736,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2014 to $1,851,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2015.
The $115,000,000,000 increase in federal spending outpaced the $98,000,000,000 increase in federal taxation to result in a $17,000,000,000 higher deficit ($413,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2014 compared to $430,000,000,000 in the first half of fiscal 2015).
Medicaid—which was expanded by Obamacare—was a major force driving increased federal spending.
“Outlays for Medicaid rose by $31 billion (or 22 percent), largely because most of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act that led to increased enrollment in Medicaid went into effect in January 2014 and therefore did not affect the program’s spending in the first few months of fiscal year 2014 [which began in October 2013],” said the CBO.
Medicare spending (up $23 billion or 9 percent) and Social Security spending (up $19 billion or 4 percent) also saw large increases.