The total cost of the 2012 election was $6.3 billion, about half of which was the Presidential election, so over a period of 4 years you're looking at roughly 2.4 billion per year. That would do jack shit for curing aging or even an important disease. The NIH spends $30 billion per year on those things.
We do the beer and circuses because they're cheaper than large-scale human advancements. The Manhattan project was $30 billion. Apollo was about $135 billion. The interstate highway system was $400-500 billion. (Inflation adjusted).
The cost of implementing SENS, a detailed research plan to demonstrate rejuvenation in old mice, is between $1 to $2 billion over 20 years.
Of the NIH budget, much less than 1% goes towards ways to intervene in aging I'm sorry to say. The NIA yearly budget is ~$1 billion, and of that very little has anything to do with actually altering the course of aging.
SENS is really fishy. Computer people I know love the idea. Biological research people I know think the guy is talking out his ass and hand waving most of it.
I do think aging based research is the future, I just worry that SENS is a boondoggle that could put us off aging research permanently.
Organ printing is getting sizable investment right now. That will do a good job at a lot of problems.
We do the beer and circuses because they're cheaper than large-scale human advancements. The Manhattan project was $30 billion. Apollo was about $135 billion. The interstate highway system was $400-500 billion. (Inflation adjusted).