reforms were put in place to try and put checks on the influence of big money in politics. for a while, that might have worked but over the last 12 years, big money has gradually made a comeback. 2012 was the most expensive election season in u.s. history. the septembcenter for responsiv politics estimates $6 billion was spent in total, with outside groups contributing as much as a billion dollars, and according to the sun life foundation, just 1,200 individuals spent $155 million of that total. and now, we have last weekend s first ever adelson primary, where republican hopefuls brought big dreams of political superstardom to vegas in hopes of getting a big check in just one billionaire casino magnate. sheldon and i owned a restaurant together. so in ohio, we re no longer flyover, sheldon. listen, sheldon, thanks for inviting me. republicans are thrilled with
that s my point. and also melissa, another thing that i m very interested in is that they ve been all over this myth that the healthcare.gov website cost $634 million. listen to this. you pick any big business. if they spend $634 million and it failed this dramatically, why wouldn t that person be fired? that website, by the way, the original projected cost $93 million. the end cost, $643 million. i kid you not. american taxpayers have spent over $600 million on a system that isn t working. at some point democrats will say we screwed up. we spent 600 million bucks of your money. we had plenty of time to do it, and we blew it. now, even though the right wingers are saying this cost $634 million, the non-partisan sun life foundation said the
columnist david from, the host of the fromme forum and former speechwriter for george w. bush. thank you for being here. the one thing we re going to be hearing about in the next 12 months, david i put it to you, a gop set of primaries, looking for a candidate, talking about the middle class, who represents the middle class in this country? the the democrats are trying to make some speeches that the democrats are the party of the middle class, republicans the party of the rich. the republicans struggling with that themselves. david, what s your sense of how republicans are positioning themselves and who this country represents the vast majority of people, the middle class. i don t think anybody is doing a very good job of it. the president gave a speech in kansas in which he tried to stake out this ground and gave an assessment of the major problems facing middle-class americans. his prescriptions were really weak. the president s main idea seems to be to have higher taxes
commerce spent $31 million and reported none of it. our candidates that we will educate about and be positive about are people that have voted, no matter their party, have voted on issues that create jobs, that are positive for the business community. reporter: as for the tea party freshman, renee ellmers, she took her name off the bill, opposed by americans for job security. she claims signing on in the first place was a staff error. was it? or was it an acknowledgement of the new reality in washington, d.c.? the amount of money flowing into the political space in 2012 will be a record, and much of it will flow through these outside groups. money has always mattered in politics, but pretty soon, it may be all that matters. and here with us now, lisa rosenberg, government affairs consultant at the sun life foundation, and paul bloomenthal, our huffington post collaborator on this coverage. you wrote about the renee