March 31, 2014
SEC
I am deeply concerned about the influence of corporate money on our electoral process.
In particular, I am appalled that, because of the Supreme Court's ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, publicly traded corporations can spend investors' money 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
Corporations should absolutely have to publicly disclose all of there political spending. The Supreme Court .Judges that voted for Citizens United did this country a great injustice.
What this is doing to this country is allowing corporations to secretly donate enough money to swing elections there way. So the way things are going at present, we no longer have a Democracy. We have a country controlled by huge corporations and the top 1 or 2%. I'm not sure what kind of government we have at present but it is not a Democracy or a Republic representing the majority of the people.
Our congressmen and representatives running for office should only be able to spend a reasonable amount of money to get in office. This money should come out of a special fund if necessary, not paid for by corporations.
Last the special interest groups should go, because that is just what they are, most likely not acting in the best interest of the majority.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Stephen Penton