November 6, 2013
SEC Comment file 4-637
Dear Comment file 4-637,
I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process. Immoral corporate CEOs are spending money that could be spent providing jobs to unemployed Americans to elect candidates who support their anti-environmental agendas.
What may be even worse, is since the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. FEC, they can spend unlimited amounts of company funds on politics without disclosing to the public and even their own shareholders the details about where the money is going. This allows them to make expenditures that they would never be able to justify publicly.
We have already seen how this is having a disastrous effect on both our political system and our environment. This needs to be changed before our country reverts to the days of the late 1800s and early 1900s before Upton Sinclair and Teddy Roosevelt.
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.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Barb Krueger