October 23, 2008 5:05PM 

# Why Do We Spend So Little on Politics? 

By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) 

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Citizens for Responsible Politics are [wringing their hands](http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2008/10/us-election-will-cost-53-billi.html) over the fact that Americans may spend $5.3 billion on political campaigns this year. (And it’s not all the Obama campaign!) *$5.3 billion.*

So let’s see … the federal government just spent $700 billion on a bailout of Wall Street. Or maybe it’s [$2.25 trillion, or $3 trillion, ](http://bigpicture.typepad.com/comments/2008/10/bailout-price-t.html)in the eventual total cost of the financial bailouts. And we’ve spent $600 billion–or maybe a trillion, or maybe $4 trillion–on the [Iraq war.](http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/19/washington/19cost.html) And so little things like a $25 billion bailout for the automobile industry become accounting errors. Meanwhile, under President Bush annual federal spending has soared past $2 trillion and past $3 trillion.

And with all this money available in Washington, people have only spent $5.3 billion this year to get a piece of it? What’s wrong with them? Political scientists from Gordon Tullock to [Stephen Ansolabehere](http://web.mit.edu/polisci/research/representation/CF_JEP_Final.pdf) have pondered this question. [Tim Harford says](http://www.slate.com/id/2138874/) it’s not easy to get politicians to do what you want even when you spend money on them, and that’s why people spend so little.

But $5.3 billion to elect a president and 468 members of Congress? That’s less than we’ll spend on [potato chips](http://www.sfa.org/potato150.aspx) this year.

##### Related Tags 

[General](https://www.cato.org/general), [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics) 

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