By Darius Shahtahmasebi at theantimedia.org
No matter how poor or indebted a country is, there is apparently always enough money for two things: war and elections.
According to gobankingrates.com, the current U.S. presidential race is set to be the most expensive race to date. So far, it has cost at least $6.6 billion USD. As of October 25, 2016, the two major presidential candidates had spent a combined $1.13 billion running for office, compared to $913 million spent at the same point in the 2012 race.
According to Bloomberg, Donald Trump has largely relied on his own wealth and millions of small donations to support his campaign. As of October 19, Trump had contributed $56.2 million of his own money into his own campaign and had spent $429.5 million in total. Clinton, on the other hand, was able to raise a whopping $1.06 billion and had spent $897 million at the same point in time. Bloomberg’s figures demonstrate that gobankingrates.com’s data might have been underestimated.
Hillary Clinton has reportedly spent over $125.1 million on media, which completely demolishes Trump’s $30.4 million. In comparison, Gary Johnson has only spent $87,000 on media, and Jill Stein spent approximately $484,200.
Most concerning, however, is the fact that the cost of the Democratic convention topped Clinton’s spending on media and totaled a whopping $127 million USD. Worse, $43 million of this money was federal money.
When you are hungry this Christmas and possibly living on the street, just remember there is no money to feed you, but over $6 billion has been used to vie for one job.
As famously stated by former wrestler, NAVY seal, and Governor Jesse Ventura:
“One day in high school I came home and my dad said to me, ‘You know, all politicians are crooks,’ and I said, ‘C’mon dad, you can’t make a blanket statement like that – they can’t all be?’ He said, ‘Yes they can, and do you know why?’ And I said, ‘Why?’ and he said:
‘Because they spend a million dollars for a job that only pays a hundred grand!’”
This article (US Presidential Election Spending Sets New Record of $6.6 Billion) is free and open source. You have permission to republish this article under a Creative Commons license with attribution to Darius Shahtahmasebi and theAntiMedia.org.
