Not only the stuff other people have said about how that money is actually spent, but... The market sets the prices. Sure, the politicians might want more, bu

Not only the stuff other people have said about how that money is actually spent, but... The market sets the prices. Sure, the politicians might want more, but I'm sure there are others who would be just as effective who could want less. Then the political contributions flow to your competitors instead of you. And there are other factors. If you're too obviously corrupt, maybe you get voted out anyway. Maybe you don't even see what you're doing as corruption. Things just happen to align. Or maybe you see it as a win-win. You get something, you do good for your constituents, the lobbying group gets what it wants, etc. The truth is way more complicated than "corpo stooges carrying big sacks of dollars to fat cat politicians".