The second quarter campaign finance reports for the presidential campaigns will be submitted in the next two weeks. While it is not surprising some of the totals that will be pouring in (like Obama's $32.5 million in one quarter), the Center for Competitive Politics reminds us that the big numbers need to be taken in context.
Of course, there will be the inevitable handwringing about how much money is in politics. But here are a couple things to put into context the campaign spending. As CCP pointed out, in 2006, the off year elections had $860 million in spending.
In contrast, Americans spent $7.464 BILLION with a B at McDonald's in 2006.
The Federal Budget for FY2008 is expected to be $2.9 trillion dollars and the Gross Domestic Product is projected to be $14.5 Trillion.
So is a billion dollars on a Presidential campaign too much? As compared to what?
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