July 25, 2013
A democracy - or rather a democratic republic - like ours is built on the premise that the general public elects its leaders to a government that also charter corporations. The ludicrous decision of the Roberts court that corporations are people is bad enough.
But it is unconscionable that publicly traded corporations, licensed by our state governments, should be also allowed to spend enormous amounts of money in secret to influence elections especially under current neo-liberal economic policies, they have no other interest than their own profit.
Other than profit tanking --- no interest in long-term investment in public well-being, an intelligent and efficient healthcare, a full range of educational opportunities, infrastructure, or publicly owned parks.
It will be difficult to undo much of current law that corporations have "bought". It is easier to require full disclosure of ALL of their political spending.
We, at the very least, should know "who, how, where, and when" they are attempting to influence our government with cash.
I am writing to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending – and to do so this year.
“Dark money” groups that accept contributions from corporations, but are not required to publicly identify their corporate donors, spent millions of dollars during the 2012 elections. It is a scandal that money from publicly traded corporations – which belongs to investors – can be secretly spent to distort our democracy.
The Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission created the loophole that enables this secret spending, but the SEC has the authority to close it.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much corporations spend on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
David Altemose
Bradley Beach, NJ