September 07, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
I am writing to urge the SEC to issue a rule requiring publicly traded corporations to publicly disclose all their political spending.
Both shareholders and the public must be fully informed as to how much the corporation spends on politics and which candidates are being promoted or attacked. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC's web site.
I strongly believe that our political system is already compromised by the immense influence of lobbyists for special interests and corporations. By allowing corporations to spend unlimited & undocumented funds to further influence political campaigns we're moving further away from the democratic system which the founding fathers put in place and closer to an oligarchy. This election year is already showing how facts and the truth are taking a back seat to polarizing party platforms which border on propaganda. Please work to mitigate the damage done to our country by the Citizen's United decision and regulate and document all political campaign financing.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Michael Bates