Did $6 billion in campaign spending help the economy at least?

Unfortunately, calling it a mini-stimulus would be a gross understatement. While $6 billion sure sounds like a lot of money, relative to the size of the $14 trillion U.S. economy, it’s a miniscule amount. Most estimates of the 2009 stimulus package say that the $700 billion affair boosted real GDP somewhere between 1% and 4% – so an extra $6 billion in spending would have a very negligible effect on the national economy.

Even if you were to focus on areas of the country where campaign cash was concentrated, campaign spending is dwarfed by the Gross Regional Products of those areas. For instance, Ohio’s Gross State Product is just north of $400 billion dollars, far too large for campaign spending to make significant waves even if you generously assume that one sixth of the total campaign spending took place there.