Too Much Spending on Presidential Campaign

By: Molly W.

As of October 17 2012, our nation’s debt was over $16 trillion and going up each day. That’s $16 trillion that we need to pay back. That is $16 trillion that is being taken out of our wallets. What makes it even worse is that our country continues to spend money that we don’t have. The 2012 presidential campaign has reached a record of $5.8 billion. Our country cannot afford to spend billions of dollars on the presidential election when that money could help pay off our countries detrimental debt, instead we need to cut the cost of campaign spending.  

Lately, a person turns on the television at night and commercial after commercial is about the presidential race, or the phone constantly rings trying to persuade a person to vote for a certain candidate. After while the advertisements and phone calls get real annoying. But it also makes you wonder, how much is all this costing? According to U.S. Today “Center for Responsive Politics estimates the total cost of the 2012 elections will jump 7% from $5.4 billion four years ago and could "come close" this year to reaching $6 billion.” That seems way too much money to spend on a presidential election. Compare that number to 32 years ago when presidential candidates Jimmy Carter and Ronald Regan received a $29.4 million that they were allowed to spend on their campaign. From 1980-2012 that’s a $5.7 billion dollar increase. The presidential campaign should still have a set limit that they can spend so they don’t further put our country into more debt.

Back in June of 2012, Wisconsin went through something similar through the recall election, costing our state millions. In the article, The Cost of Recall Elections: Another Reason for Change says, Wisconsin's long recall season surely had a considerable cost to the state's civility - but there was a real, bottom-line cost, too: $125 million to $130 million in campaign spending.” In the long run, the recall election was a waste of time and money because Scott Walker is still our governor. It makes me mad that $130 million was spent out of our pockets to support the recall election, when it didn’t even have to happen in the first place. That money could have gone to things that we need to improve in our state. For example schools in Milwaukee, roads, and public funding. This is just another example of foolish spending done by government.

After seeing all these numbers increase daily adding onto the U.S deficit, Michael Toner from BBC news believes that “The sky is the limit here. I don’t think you can spend too much.” I disagree with his statement. Our country has a problem with over spending and it’s things like the election that could be easily fixed and save the country millions of dollars. To continue to raise the price of election is a horrible idea. If we continue with useless spending, our country will never be able to get out of debt.  Also, if the presidential candidates are so concerned about the debt, than why do they continue to spend more and more money on their campaign? For the 2016 election, something needs to be done for campaign spending. Whether it’s putting a set limit of money that the candidates cannot go over, or simply decreasing the amount of the costly advertisement. The answer is not to raise the amount of money like Toner believes.

Is it really worth spending $5.8 million on a political campaign? Or is there other ways to spend that money? Although the presidential race is a big deal in the United States, instead of using all that money for the campaign we should use the money to further improve America and the people in it. 

Bibliography:

·                     Hebblethwaite, Cordelia. "BBC News - US election: How can it cost $6bn?." BBC - Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19052054>.

·                     {, LineTag. "2012 election costs could reach record $5.8 billion." USA TODAY: Latest World and US News - USATODAY.com . N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://content.usatoday.com/communities/onpolitics/post/2012/08/2012-election-total-spending-costliest-obama-romney-/1>.

·                     1920, Democrats had all but vanished from the Wisconsin political landscape. The public was weary of the war, 1925, Democrats had one member of the Assembly, between 1923, 1930, and they had no members of the state Senate.. "WPRI Report: The History of the Recall in Wisconsin - by Christian Schneider." The Wisconsin Policy Research Institute: Wisconsin's Free Market Think Tank. N.p., n.d. Web. 17 Oct. 2012. <http://www.wpri.org/Reports/Volume25/Vol25No3