Federal Government Hauls in Record Tax Revenue; Debt Continues to Skyrocket

Elections come, elections go. Through it all, Big Government does grow:

The U.S. Treasury hauled in $240,418,000,000 in total taxes in the month of May, setting a record for inflation-adjusted tax revenues for that month of the year, according to the Monthly Treasury Statement released this week.

Great; we’ll finally make some headway against that massive national debt, right? Wrong. As much as the government confiscates, it spends even more, so the debt keeps getting bigger.

Despite these record revenues, however, the federal government still ran a deficit of $88,426,000,000 in May—because it spent $328,844,000,000 in the month.

In the first eight months of fiscal 2017 (October through May), the federal government hauled in $2,169,160,000,000 in total taxes and spent $2,602,013,000,000—thus, running a deficit of $432,853,000,000.

The national debt is closing in quickly on $20 trillion, not counting unfunded liabilities.

The $240,418,000,000 in taxes the federal government collected in the month of May 2017 equaled approximately $1,572 for each of the 152,923,000 people the Bureau of Labor Statistics said had a job in the United States during the month.

Obviously, the federal government will not be able to balance the books no matter how greedily it taxes us unless it reduces spending, which will entail drastic reductions in its size and scope. The alternative is inevitable economic collapse, because if something cannot go on forever, it won’t.

On tips from Bodhisattva and Torcer.