April 28, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
As you know, in its infinite wisdom, the Supreme Court has ruled in the Citizen's United case that corporations can make an unlimited amount of political contributions and can do so without revealing the contribution even to shareholders. However we do at least have one small tool to fight the political corruption that could and likely will occur with such a ruling. That tool, the only tool left in our tool bag really is you, the SEC. So, I am writing to strongly urge that the Commission rule in favor of 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. It will be hard enough to prevent the corrosive effect of the Supreme Court's misguided ruling from private corporations unlimited political contributions. Let's not fan the fire by allowing publicly traded ones to do likewise.
Thank you in advance for your kind consideration of the matter.
Sincerly,
John Loomis
Sincerely,
john loomis