Spending on elections has gotten more and more frivolous over the years, with political ads bombarding television, and numerous 'get out the vote' campaigns draining away millions and millions every four years. Now, as we hit the home stretch of the 2024 election cycle, we are on a path to spending the second most money ever on the event.

A top watchdog group called OpenSecrets issued a report recently that an estimated $15.9 billion is going to be spend on this year's federal elections. That compared to 2022, when $15.1 billion was spent. However, when adjusting for inflation, that number becomes $18.3 billion. Still, this will wind up being the second most we have ever spent on an election. For reference, it is the equivalent of the GDP of Laos.

Jeffrey Lord of Newsmax says this is an uphill climb we have been on for the last 40 years or so, and it is only getting worse.

"This became really big when there was the story during the 1990s that if you paid x amount of money, you would get a night in the Lincoln Bedroom," he says.

But the real start of it, according to Lord, began in the 1980s. It is not money out of thin air either, most of it is coming from Super Political Action Committees (PACs). The report from OpenSecrets says in this cycle, about $5 billion is coming from Super PACs, which is a new record.

Beyond them though, comes the big spenders, like George Soros.

"You have all these 'billionaire's billionaire's' kicking in...so, when you add it together, it really starts to add up," he says.

In the days of old, the Republican Party was known as the 'County Club Party,' essentially. It was seen has fancy, pretentious, and big spending without a care for the American Worker. The Democrats used to be the not-so-flashy party that cared about the American worker.

But now, especially seen in the last few months, that has flipped quite a bit.

"You have a total reversal...Democrats are now the party of all these wealthy folks, while Republicans are now the party of the working man...and it shows up," he says.

The Federal Election Commission was created in 1974, after reports of serious financial abuse during the 1972 presidential elections. They then set limits on how much you can spend, and on what.

That 1972 election caused scandal, but unless we have another situation like that, this spending will only keep going north.

"Until there is another scandal, things will not change," says Lord.

To note as well, the top 1 percent of donors account for 50 percent of all the money spent in the election. By comparison, people who give under $200 account for just 16 percent of the funds.

Michael Berry