April 29, 2012
Dear members of the Securities and Exchange Commission:
I am writing to urge the SEC 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.
The Citizens United decision and the obscene amounts of untrackable, unaccountable money it allows ALL special interestes to pour into elections is undermining our democracy and making it much too subject to pernicious and invidious corruption. It leaves our elected leaders, who are supposed to be accountable to ALL THE PEOPLE, subject to political blackmail and extortion. ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES IN CONGRESS, THE WHITE HOUSE, IN STATE LEGISLATURES, IN CITIES AND COUNTIES ALL OVER OUR LAND ARE NOT FREE TO MAKE DECISIONS THAT ARE MORALLY JUST AND IN THE PEOPLE'S OR EVEN THE NATION'S BEST INTERESTS. THIS MUST STOP.
Thank you for considering my comment.
Sincerely,
Kathleen Aki