People are too concerned about the cost of elections.
The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks money
and lobbying in elections, says the 2016 election cost $6.9 billion. Call it $7
billion.
The National Income is $17 trillion.
$7 billion is only 4 hundredths of one percent (.04%)
of the national income. A tiny fraction of one percent of the national income
to choose the nation’s leaders without bloodshed? That’s peanuts! How fortunate
we are that elections cost so little!
Presidential-election money is spent only every four
years. How long does it take for the federal government to spend $7 billion?
Let’s see. The estimated federal spending for the
fiscal year 2016 was $3.854 trillion.
A 365-day year contains 8,760 hours.
$3,854 trillion divided by 8,760 hours means that the
government spends almost $440 million an hour.
At $440 million an hour, the government spends $7
billion in about 16 hours. Now that’s something worth worrying about.
Parts of this
column were sent to newspapers on November 27, 2016.
