(Photo by Olivier Douliery/AFP via Getty Images)(CNSNews.com) - The federal government set new records in the taxes it collected, the spending it engaged in and the deficit it ran through the first eight months of fiscal 2021 (October through May), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement. Federal taxes hit a record $2,606,879,000,000 while federal spending climbed to $4,670,668,000,000, resulting in a federal deficit of $2,063,789,000,000. That year the Treasury collected $2,397,198,010,000 in total tax revenues (in constant May 2021 dollars) in the first eight months of the fiscal year. When the October-through-May deficit numbers are adjusted into May 2021 dollars, the second-highest deficit also came in fiscal 2020, when the federal government ran a deficit of $1,974,173,660,000 in the first eight months of the fiscal year. Defense spending in the first eight months of this fiscal year was $504,455,000,000.
