January 18, 2012
I no longer live in a democracy because of the corruptive influence of money in US elections. You don't either, but your economic class may be better represented by those with great wealth than I am.
The Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United means that corporations can spend any amount of money on political activity in secret, even publicly traded corporations.
As regulators of publicly traded corporations, I ask you to require full disclosure of all lobbying expenses and political spending at every level of government.
These expenditures should be posted online within 24 hours of spending; corporations must share spending data on a daily basis within their own business and the public posting should be no slower. Further, these costs should be aggregated monthly with maybe a 5 day delay - by government, then by candidate. The lobbying expenses should follow the same general formula. Lobbyists all have scheduling calendars - this won't be costly.
I further request that a central site be provided to post this data, as individual corporations and shell companies would be too easy to hide behind.
Thank you for considering my concerns.
Timothy Masanz
Clearwater, FL