January 18, 2012
As a US citizen deeply concerned about the current and ongoing state of our country, I feel the matter of how corporations (and their supposed "person" status) unduly influence our political and legislative processes needs to be fully exposed and patrolled by the limited powers-that-be (you, the SEC).
I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, publicly traded corporations can spend investor's money on political activity in secret.
I am writing to urge the Securities and Exchange Commission 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.
Our country is broken - badly. Ludicrous rulings like CU weaken the entire democratic process and need to be overturned. I realize that the SEC does not have that power, however, you do have powers for monitoring and regulating corporations to ensure that they operate within the parameters of the law. Please do so in this case by shining light on the underhanded political spending by corporations.
Thank you for considering my comment.
John Ramsey
Tomahawk, WI