The Federal Government collected $458.65 billion in taxes in the first two months of the fiscal year, the Treasury Department reported Thursday.
But it wasn’t enough to cover $764 billion in federal spending, which meant the deficit hit a record $305 billion — a 50-percent increase over last year.
The fiscal year begins Oct. 1, and the latest data extends through Nov. 30. The figures pushed total national debt to $21.850 trillion, a number that’s expected to exceed $22 trillion within the next month — meaning every man, woman and child in the United States will owe a little over $67,000 to pay it off. (RELATED: The US Ran The Highest Monthly Budget Surplus In History)
That figure increased by nearly $1,000 per person in November, the most of any month since President Trump took office on Jan. 20, 2017. The national debt stood at $19.94 trillion that day, up from $10.6 trillion when President Obama was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2009.
November was an unusually dismal month for the budget due to the fact Dec. 1 falls on a Saturday. As a result, $44 billion in federal December entitlement benefits were paid in November. Had that not been the case, this year’s deficit for the period would have been a mere 25-percent larger than last year.
The federal deficit this year could top $1.1 trillion, by some estimates, well in excess of the $779 billion deficit in fiscal 2018. Entitlement programs — Social Security, Medicaid, Medicare, unemployment insurance and Obamacare — account for most of the spending, taking around 70 percent of the federal budget.