The $6 billion tab of 2011-12 election cycle political expenditures had barely been tallied before anti-free speech groups began calling for additional campaign finance reforms.
With all the hyperventilating over the supposedly outsized spending on American elections, we thought it would be insightful to examine some of the things on which Americans spend more – vastly more, in some cases – than their political system.
(Note: The tallies below are annual expenditures. If an election cycle is measured as a two-year time frame, a two-year comparison would actually double the totals below.)
Video games – $9.3 billion
Pet food – $19.5 billion
Cosmetics – $33.3 billion
Movie theater admissions – $10.4 billion
Halloween – $8 billion
Pizza – $27 billion
Bottled water – $21.7 billion
Lottery tickets – $59 billion
Tax preparation – $140 billion
Coffee – $11 billion
(h/t NRO)
