CNS News:

The federal fiscal year begins on Oct. 1 and runs through Sept. 30. In the first five months of fiscal 2012 (October through February), according to the Monthly Treasury Statement, total federal spending was approximately $1,473,999,000,000.00. In the first five months of fiscal 2013, total federal spending was $1,504,547,000,000.00.

Thus, federal spending was $30,548,000,000.00 more in the first five months of fiscal 2013 than it was during the first five months of fiscal 2012.

The federal government is also spending at a much faster pace this year than it did before President Barack Obama took office.

In the first five months of fiscal 2008 (the last full fiscal year before Obama took office), the federal government spent $1,230,412,000,000.00. That is $274,315,000,000.00 less than the $1,504,547,000,000.00 that the federal government spent in the first five months of this fiscal year.

So far this fiscal year, the federal government is spending an average of about $300,909,400,000.00 per month. If the government maintained that average pace for all 12 months of the fiscal year, it would spend a total of $3,610,912,800,000.00.

Through all of fiscal 2008, before Obama took office, the federal government spent a total 2,978,440,000,000.00. Adjusted for inflation, that equals $3,211,717,910,000.00 in 2013 dollars. So, were the government to continue on its pace to spend $3,610,912,800,000.00 this year, then real federal spending in fiscal 2013 would be $399,194,890,000.00 more than it was in the last full fiscal year before Obama became president.