February 9, 2012
Securities and Exchange Comm.
Dear Securities and Exchange Comm.,
I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process. It brought us the housing bubble. Now politicians must fear corporate sponsored negative advertisement if they do not do exactly what corporations want even if those demands are anti-democratic and against the will of the people. Isn't the system broken enough without allowing corporations to operate behind a curtain of secrecy? Help pull back the curtain and let in the sunshine. Sunlight is the best disinfectant for our ailing democracy. To paraphrase George Orwell, as it now stands, all people are equal, it is just that some people, as defined by Citizens United, are more equal than others, particularly, when it comes to influencing our democracy.
In particular, I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court’s ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, publicly traded corporations can conceal expenditures of shareholder funds on politics.
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. After all, these are entities created by the state and should be regulated with the public interest in mind. How hard is this to do? What are our regulators waiting for? Another crash? Please act swiftly and in the public interest despite heavy lobbying by corporations.
The SEC must stop operating like an adult book store and more like a public library, where corporate political spending is made available for all to see.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed about corporate political spending and which candidates it is being used to promote or attack. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Michael Harrod