In the special report, "Bitter Pill: Why Medical Bills Are Killing Us" (TIME, Vol. 181, No. 8, 2013), S. Brill presented an in-depth investigation of hospital billing practices that reveals why U.S. health care spending is out of control. One of the many statistics provided in the report is that, during the period from 1998 through 2012, the pharmaceutical and health-care-products industries and organizations representing doctors, hospitals, nursing homes, health services, and HMOs spent $5.36 billion lobbying Congress.

a. Under what conditions would the $5.36 billion lobbying expenditure figure be a descriptive statistic? Explain your answer.

b. Under what conditions would the $5.36 billion lobbying expenditure figure be an inferential statistic? Explain your answer.