April 28, 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.
I do not understand why you are considering making a different decision on this issue. Can you please explain to me what the legal basis would be for allowing corporations to hide their contributions? If there is a legal basis fir it, perhaps there is still leeway to require disclosure for contributions beyond a certain dollar amount. Without disclosure, there is no way individual citizens or citizen groups will have a reasonable opportunity to counterbalance the tremendous spending power of corporatations and corporate special interests.
Thank you for considering my comment.