February 2, 2013
Dear Members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
The corporate use of consumer dollars to influence politics is anethema to the tenets of free enterprise. The foundational principle of free enterprise assumes businesses compete by spending consumer dollars to improve products or to reduce costs of production. The reduction of costs or the gain of competitive advantage through political manipulation has no place in the economic model. Corporate political spending ultimately guarantees rejection of unfettered capitalism, by citizens in a democracy. I ask the SEC to protect the business plutocrats from themselves.
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.
Prior to the overturn of Citizen's United, both shareholders (particularly institutional holders like pension funds), customers 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,
Linda Bricker