February 2, 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.
Frankly, this is not asking much. Common-sense asks that elected officials spend their time working for the national well-being instead of begging for money. So, first of all, work to get money out of politics and elections.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Richard Patten