THE PRICE TAG ON US DEMOCRACY IN 2010

Elections:  Outside spending in 2010 was $489 million dollars, while the total cost of the federal election campaigns was $3.65 billion dollars.  All together, $4.14 billion dollars was spend on federal elections. 

-          $43,131 was spent per vote cast in the 2010 election.  *

  

Lobbying:  In addition to campaign contributions to elected officials and candidates, companies, labor unions, and other organizations spend billions of dollars each year to lobby Congress and federal agencies.   In 2010 a total of 3.51 BILLION Dollars was spent on lobbying.  [ OpenSecrets  ]  In 2010 the US Census Bureau reports that 95,987 people reported that they voted [ US Census ] (33,000+ didn’t answer the question.) 

-          Lobbyists spent  $36,567 per vote cast in the 2010 election. 

There were 210,080,000 voting aged citizens in 2010.  That means that in 2010:

 

-          The cost of elections per voting aged citizen was $19,707 per person

-          The cost of lobbying per voting aged citizen was $16,708 per person

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* That is more than the household income for 40% of all Americans