Feds Pull In $3 Trillion in Taxes, a Historic High

Newly released government figures show that federal tax revenues topped $3 trillion for the first time in history, the Treasury Department announced Wednesday.

According to the Treasury Department's latest Monthly Treasury Statement, the federal government collected $3.020 trillion — an increase of 9 percent in revenue compared with 2013.

Only five years ago, in 2009, the Treasury collected in $2.1 trillion in taxes.

"Every one of those $3 trillion is sucked out of the private-sector economy and makes the private sector smaller," Chris Edwards, director of tax policy studies at the Cato Institute, told The Washington Times.

"The $3 trillion isn't free. It comes out of our pockets and from the private economy," Edwards said.

In fiscal year 1977, the federal government collected $1.401 trillion in inflation-adjusted revenue. Compared with current figures, that represents an increase in revenues of 115.7 percent, according to CNS News.

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