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In the wake of the recent Supreme Court ruling... it’s important that Congress consider new reforms to prevent corporations and other special interests from gaining even more clout in Washington. And almost all of these reforms are designed to bring new transparency to campaign spending. They are based on the principle espoused by former Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis – that sunlight is the best disinfectant. Shadowy campaign committees would have to reveal who’s funding their activities to the American people. And when corporations and other special interests take to the airwaves, whoever is running and funding the ad would have to appear in the advertisement and claim responsibility for it – like a company’s CEO or an organization’s biggest contributor. This will mean citizens can evaluate the claims in these ads with information about an organization’s real motives. We know how important this is. We’ve all seen groups with benign-seeming names sponsoring television commercials that make accusations and assertions designed to influence the public debate and sway voters’ minds. Now, of course every organization has every right in this country to make their voices heard. But the American people also have the right to know when some group like “Citizens for a Better Future†is actually funded entirely by “Corporations for Weaker Oversight.â€In addition, these reforms would address another troubling aspect of the Supreme Court’s ruling. Under the bill Congress will consider, we’ll make sure that foreign corporations and foreign nationals are restricted from spending money to influence American elections, just as they were in the past – even through U.S. subsidiaries. And we’d keep large contractors that receive taxpayer funds from interfering in our elections as well, to avoid the appearance of corruption and the possible misuse of tax dollars. Now, we can expect that these proposed changes will be met with heavy resistance from the special interests and their supporters in Congress. But I’m calling on leaders in both parties to resist these pressures. For what we are facing is no less than a potential corporate takeover of our elections. And what is at stake is no less than the integrity of our democracy. This shouldn’t be a Democratic issue or a Republican issue. This is an issue that goes to whether or not we will have a government that works for ordinary Americans – a government of, by, and for the people. That’s why these reforms are so important. And that’s why I’m going to fight to see them passed into law.http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/weekly-address-president-obama-calls-congress-enact-reforms-stop-a-potential-corpor
"Giving Government Back to the American People"
It is called the "Democracy Is Strengthened by Casting Light On Spending Election" Act (DISCLOSE--H.R. 5175).What it does (in open defiance of a recent Supreme Court ruling), is greatly restrict all campaign advertising by businesses and non-profit groups while putting any connections between such groups and political campaigns under intense public scrutiny.The bill pretends to include unions, but goes out of its way to let them off the hook at every turn. For instance, along party lines, Democrats voted to exempt only unions from using foreign funding and from bans on political advocacy by government contractors. They also voted against extending these restrictions to recipients of government grants (guess who gets most of those).
