Between Record Taxes and 40 Year High Inflation Americans are being crushed with no relief in sight
by Terence Jeffrey, CNS News, Spetember 14, 2022
(CNSNews.com) - The federal government collected a record $4,408,452,000,000 in total taxes in the first eleven months of fiscal 2022 (October through August), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement.
That was up $525,658,170,000—or 13.5 percent--from the then-record $3,882,793,830,000 (in constant August 2022 dollars) that the federal government collected in the first eleven months of fiscal 2021.
The record $4,408,452,000,000 in total taxes that the federal government collected in the first eleven months of this fiscal year, included a record $2,404,419,000,000 in individual income taxes.
It also included $1,356,643,000,000 in social insurance and retirement taxes; $76,048,000,000 in excise taxes; $29,088,000,000 in estate and gift taxes; $91,167,000,000 in customs duties; and $132,163,000,000 in what the Treasury calls “miscellaneous receipts.”
Even though it collected this record $4,408,452,000,000 in taxes in the first eleven months of this fiscal year, the federal government still ran a deficit of $945,715,000,000 during this period—because it spent $5,354,167,000,000.
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The Department of Health and Human Services led the federal government in spending in the first eleven months of fiscal 2022 with outlays of $1,467,475,000,000. The Social Security Administration was second, spending $1,168,870,000,000 in the first eleven months of this fiscal year. The Department of the Treasury was third, spending a total of $1,139,305,000,000—including $677,612,000,000 to pay the interest on Treasury securities and $461,693,000,000 on other expenses.
The Department of Defense-Military Programs was fourth, spending $649,261,000,000.
Under Joe Biden, Americans see 'most severe' pay cut in 25 years due to inflation
The Fed reports more than half of Americans saw a decrease in wages in the last 12 months.
Americans are experiencing the biggest pay cut in decades in large part due to inflation, new data shows.
The Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, one of several regional Fed banks around the country, released new wage and price data, and it isn’t good news for Americans.
“We find that a majority of employed workers’ real (inflation-adjusted) wages have failed to keep up with inflation in the past year,” the bank said. “For these workers, the median decline in real wages is a little more than 8.5 percent. Taken together, these outcomes appear to be the most severe faced by employed workers over the past 25 years.”
The Fed bank reported that more than half of Americans saw a decrease in wages in the last 12 months.
“How severe are the losses for workers experiencing negative real wage growth?” the group said. “For the 53.4 percent of such workers in second quarter 2022, the median decline (that is, half of the declines were larger and half smaller) in real wage growth was 8.6 percent. How does the severity of the real wage decline in second quarter 2022 compare with the declines over the last 25 years? The average median decline over the last 25 years is 6.5 percent, with real wage declines typically falling in the range of 5.7 to 6.8 percent…”
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The bank pointed to the Consumer Price Index, which since President Joe Biden took office has elevated to the highest rate in four decades. The Bureau of Labor Statistic’s latest Consumer Price Index surpassed 8% in the previous 12 months.
Some expenses like groceries saw even larger increases.
“The food at home index rose 13.5 percent over the last 12 months, the largest 12-month increase since the period ending March 1979,” BLS said. “The index for other food at home rose 16.7 percent and the index for cereals and bakery products increased 16.4 percent over the year. The remaining major grocery store food groups posted increases ranging from 9.4 percent (fruits and vegetables) to 16.2 percent (dairy and related products).”
Those price increases have outpaced wage gains, meaning some workers who even got a raise this year still didn’t see a large enough increase to offset inflationary price hikes.
“While the past 25 years have witnessed episodes that show either a greater incidence or larger magnitude of real wage declines, the current time period is unparalleled in terms of the challenge employed workers face,” the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas said.
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