In the wake of the Supreme Court’s McCutcheon v. Federal Election Commission decision letting big-bucks political donors go all in, here’s the bad news by the numbers.
From the NBC News digest First Read:
Political spending from outside groups — either created or bankrolled by American billionaires — has skyrocketed from $193 million in 2004 and $338 million in 2008, to a whopping $1 billion in 2012, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. To put this $1 billion in outside spending in perspective, it’s almost TWICE what John Kerry and George W. Bush spent COMBINED in the 2004 presidential race ($655 million). And it’s THREE TIMES the amount John McCain spent in the 2008 election ($333 million). Another way to look at all of this money: Overall political spending on races (presidential plus congressional) has DOUBLED from $3 billion in 2000 to $6.2 billion in 2012. And in presidential races alone, the combined amount that George W. Bush and Al Gore spent in 2000 (about $250 million) QUADRUPLED to the combined amount Barack Obama and Mitt Romney spent in 2012 ($1 billion-plus). And that doesn’t count the political-party spending…
Yow.
Fasten your seat belts (as Bette Davis might say).
It’s going to be a bucky night.
The trade is in having the incumbent with all of the money and the challenger with little or none.
That was the consequence of the donor limits; it ended up being an incumbent protection scheme.
Sorry. I don’t find this ruling upsetting at all.
What I DO find upsetting is the incompetent incumbents that continue to hold office and do little that is of any good to The Nation.
I can’t remember – what was the name of the obsequious little dog that tagged along with the boxer “Spike” in the old cartoons?