February 1, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
It's long past time to end secret political spending by corporations.
So I strongly support the SEC issuing a rule in the near future that would require publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their spending on political activities.
Both shareholders and the public deserve to know how much a given corporation spends on politics (directly and through intermediaries), and which candidates are being promoted or attacked.
Please recall that, back in the days when "speech" meant "speech" and not "money", one could readily identify who was "speaking" by watching their mouths move. Corporations who want the right to "speak" using money should be no less readily identifiable. Requiring disclosure of political spending is in no way infringing on their new-found right to "speech", and it protects our rights to know who is influencing our government.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Jim Melton