February 1, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
I live in a poor rural area where people often choose between food and paying their rent, and an accident means financial ruin. One neighbor waited 2 weeks for x-rays and 3 weeks to see a doctor. Neighbors who have worked a lifetime at brutal jobs like paving and contruction are told by ich CEO's that they should wait longer for medicare and social security. Ordinary Americans have become irrelvant in a political process where money decides elections and only the rich corporations are heard. I wasted 40 years writing letters to the BLM about saving local wild burros only to learn that only rich corporations decided the fate of wildlife and that 10,000 letters have "no impact" when compared to the livestock lobby that earns millions in subsidies. The burros are now gone and the rich corporations have more of a strangle hold on public land use than ever. Americans should at least be allowed to know who is buying their politicians.
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.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Chrysteen Anderson