The $6 billion tab of 2011-12 election cycle political expenditures had barely been tallied before anti-free speech groups began calling for additional campaign finance reforms.

With all the hyperventilating over the supposedly outsized spending on American elections, we thought it would be insightful to examine some of the things on which Americans spend more – vastly more, in some cases – than their political system.

(Note: The tallies below are annual expenditures. If an election cycle is measured as a two-year time frame, a two-year comparison would actually double the totals below.)

Video games – $9.3 billion

Pet food – $19.5 billion

Cosmetics – $33.3 billion

Movie theater admissions – $10.4 billion

Halloween – $8 billion

Pizza – $27 billion

Bottled water – $21.7 billion

Lottery tickets – $59 billion

Tax preparation – $140 billion

Coffee – $11 billion

(h/t NRO)