THE BURNED OVER DISTRICT

One has only to look at the monies spent so far in the race for the White House to see that the country is awash in cash. With the parties still cleaning up after the first event, the Iowa Caucuses, the amount spent from all sources is already close to $1 Billion.

The 2016 White House race is on its way to being the most expensive in history.

Presidential candidates and the political groups supporting them combined to raise more than $837 million during 2015, driven by a massive influx of cash to big-money super PACs, according to a Center for Public Integrity analysis of new campaign finance filings.

The new filings show that the campaigns of Democratic presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and Republican contenders Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio raised the most impressive sums in 2015. This effectively ensures they’ll remain in the presidential race long past Monday’s Iowa caucuses.

Nearly half the presidential money raised in 2015 came from super PACs, which have no contribution limits. Republican White House hopefuls have been particularly reliant on them.

Super PACs backing GOP presidential contenders raised one-third more cash last year than the candidates’ campaigns — a significant departure from four years ago, when GOP presidential candidates outraised their supportive super PACs by more than 3 to 1.

Federal regulators sanctioned super PACs in 2010 after the U.S. Supreme Court’s Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission ruling and a lower court decision. The super PACs are supposed to avoid coordinating their spending with the politicians they support, but many nevertheless are closely tied.

The result: The presidential campaign is now a super-PAC-fueled arms race in which almost everyone has a money bomb.

And in those cases where you can follow the money, it is easy to see that the few people with the money are seriously trying to buy their agenda.