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.
Political contributions can frequently be confused with bribes. Small amounts can be acceptable in that they cannot change a persons opinion. But large amounts connote an exchange of money for favors. A limit must be set and only real persons should be allowed to support a candidate. For this reason a distinction should be made as to what constitutes a bribe.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Perry Levin