Fiscal Year 2017 Saw $4 Trillion in Federal Spending

The federal government’s 2017 Fiscal Year ends tomorrow, September 30. The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that total spending this year will be just over the $4 trillion mark, an increase of $155 billion from Fiscal Year 2016.^[1]

The spending will be covered by $3.3 billion in taxes and $693 million in deficit spending.

Looking ahead, the CBO expects federal spending to grow every year for the next decade and beyond.

An earlier Number of The Day showed that federal spending has grown consistently for decades, partly because political leaders use targeted terminology to hide the growth.

Footnotes:

1. Congressional Budget Office, "Budget and Economic Data," accessed September 28, 2017

Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology. Columns published on Ballotpedia reflect the views of the author.

Scott Rasmussen is a Senior Fellow for the Study of Self-Governance at the King’s College in New York and an Editor-At-Large for Ballotpedia, the Encyclopedia of American Politics. His most recent book, "Politics Has Failed: America Will Not," was published by the Sutherland Institute in May.To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.