Does money in politics scare you? Perhaps it’s time to put it in perspective.
How much did you spend on Halloween candy and decorations this year? Twenty dollars? Forty? Collectively, we spend far more on giving the next generation of Americans type 2 diabetes than politics.
Campaign finance attorney Dan Backer, writing for the Western Journal, explains:
As our kids fight over candy and costumes, Halloween 2019 is set to be scarily expensive. According to the National Retail Federation, total Halloween spending will exceed $8.5 billion this year, with nearly 70 percent of Americans planning to celebrate the annual sugar bonanza.
It’s just the first of many splurges this holiday season. By the end of the year, American shoppers will have spent more than $1 trillion on Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas combined. This doesn’t even take into account the untold billions spent by advertisers between October and December, as they flood the airwaves with countless product promotions.
Meanwhile, political spending during a two-year election cycle pales in comparison to the holiday splurge that defines American consumerism. Election 2016’s final price tag — the heftiest in U.S. history — was about $6.8 billion for all federal elections (and an estimated $1 billion is double-counted).
Election 2018? A new midterm record of just under $6 billion. Even in 2020, which is expected to be “the most expensive presidential race ever,” the total is unlikely to exceed $7 billion.
Keep reading at Western Journal.
AAN Staff
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