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President Barack Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi in the Capitol on March 14, 2013. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

(CNSNews.com) - Federal spending was up $30.5 billion in the first five months of  fiscal 2013 compared to the first five months of fiscal 2012, according  to newly released data from the U.S. Treasury.

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.

Congress would need to cut $399 billion this year to bring inflation-adjusted federal spending back to the level it was before Obama.

According to the CBO, the sequester that has now taken effect will  cut only $44 billion from the money that was expected to be spent  through the remainder of this fiscal year.