February 9, 2012
Securities and Exchange Comm.
Dear Securities and Exchange Comm.,
Our electoral system has been in trouble for a long time, as democracy struggles to keep up with technology and the ever-changung political climate, but the Citezens United descision has come near to pushing it over the edge.
Money is not speach, corporations are not citizens. If money were speach, you wouldn't be limited to how much cash you can take out of the country; if corporations were citizens, they could vote.
Instead, they are now allowed to to make every attempt to influence our elections that their secret money can buy. Our democracy must stand up to this de-regulated outpouring of toxic influence, and the SEC is one agency in a position to do something about it imediately.
While other bodies must ultimately take the necessary steps to reverse this unfortunate and bizarre descision, 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 about corporate political spending and which candidates it is being used to promote or attack. Disclosures should be posted promptly on the SEC’s web site. In this critical election year, there is no time to lose.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Tim Viereck