Shareholders to SEC: Expose corporate "dark money" in politics

<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9oDPorGc8nJk_GlB7dZOsE6XLXnudoAdZd0AS3NwcSxvhiryvg0j0amMt-4ZuWG6jdsvAyD-6Mz5yQvaxGTLEnrNjSQNsnbXKwx-JYYsuB7GIGjyryBexVrk1sABmfKNqsnD-6VkjHGMT/s1600/expose-the-dark-money-final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="121" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9oDPorGc8nJk_GlB7dZOsE6XLXnudoAdZd0AS3NwcSxvhiryvg0j0amMt-4ZuWG6jdsvAyD-6Mz5yQvaxGTLEnrNjSQNsnbXKwx-JYYsuB7GIGjyryBexVrk1sABmfKNqsnD-6VkjHGMT/s200/expose-the-dark-money-final.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>Wouldn't it be nice to know how much of your money is being spent to elect anti-worker politicians to office?<br /><br />If you have any retirement savings, you probably own stock in a public corporation. And the CEOs of those corporations can spend your money however they wish on politics -- without telling you.<br /><br />Since the Supreme Court's 2010 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_United_v._Federal_Election_Commission">Citizens United decision</a>, corporations have been pouring millions of dollars into shadowy groups to influence elections. In the 2012 election, up to $400 million was funneled into these "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_money">dark money</a>" groups -- that's 500 percent more than in the previous presidential election before Citizens United.<br /><br />More often than not, that corporate money is being spent to elect anti-worker candidates to public office.<br /><br />A <a href="http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/06/17/the-sec-and-dark-political-money/" rel="nofollow">new SEC rule being considered</a> would require publicly traded companies to disclose to shareholders the corporate funds spent on political campaigns.<br /><br />Supporters of the new rule, led by <a href="http://www.citizen.org/Page.aspx?pid=183">Public Citizen</a>, held an event in Washington yesterday where Sen. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Warren" rel="nofollow">Elizabeth Warren</a> (D-Mass.) <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/30/elizabeth-warren-corporate-disclosure_n_4179098.html?utm_hp_ref=politics" rel="nofollow">urged the SEC to shine a light on the "dark money"</a> spent by corporations:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">We don't have to have legislation for the SEC to do the right thing. They have the power to do the right thing right now. There is no reason for saying a corporation wants to be able to spend shareholders' money and not tell shareholders how that money is being spent.</blockquote>Advocates for transparency in corporate political spending are also supporting the <a href="https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/113/s824">Shareholder Protection Act</a>, legislation introduced by Sen. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Menendez" rel="nofollow">Robert Menendez</a> (D-N.J.) to force the SEC to enact a political disclosure rule. Menendez was also at yesterday's event and said the SEC does not need the legislation to write the new rule now.<br /><br /><div> Law professor Ciara Torres-Spelliscy wrote in the <em><a href="http://www.latimes.com/opinion/commentary/la-oe-torres-corporate-funding-politics-20131030,0,5258845.story#axzz2j8kHEJIQ" rel="nofollow">Los Angeles Times</a></em>:</div><blockquote class="tr_bq">There is no rule at the SEC that requires public companies to tell their shareholders what they are up to in partisan elections. </blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">If the law of the land allows corporations to spend unlimited money on politics, investors deserve to know when, why and how much.</blockquote><div></div><div>As the <a href="http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2013/10/29/sec-poised-to-improve-political-spending-transparency/" rel="nofollow">Sunlight Foundation observes</a>, the recent government shutdown was just one symptom of the dysfunction sewn by the dark money infecting DC -- all in the interests of right-wing fanatics and their corporate sponsors: </div><blockquote class="tr_bq">Not all that ails our democracy can be blamed on the Supreme Court decision in the Citizens United case, but $1.2 billion in spending by outside groups—at least $300 million of that from undisclosed donors—doesn’t help create a working democracy.</blockquote><blockquote class="tr_bq">Legislation such as the <a href="http://sunlightfoundation.com/blog/2012/02/09/house-democrats-introduce-disclose-2012/">DISCLOSE</a> Act is still the best chance at comprehensive disclosure of all dark money. But an SEC rule will result in greater accountability by companies that decide to spend money on politics, it will inform investors about how a company spends its profits, and it will help the public identify the messenger behind many of the political ads they see.</blockquote><div>A new SEC rule wouldn't solve all of our problems. It probably won't even reduce corporate political spending all that much. But it would be a nice change from the secrecy that shrouds political spending. </div><div></div><div>And it will give us a chance to hold CEOs accountable when they spend money on politicians who attack working people.</div>

Citizens United dark money SEC Sen. Elizabeth Warren Shareholders to SEC: Expose corporate "dark money" in politics

Wouldn't it be nice to know how much of your money is being spent to elect anti-worker politicians to office? If you have any retirement...

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'Labor was there, leading the way'

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's speech to the AFL-CIO convention over the weekend was even better than <a href="http://teamsternation.blogspot.com/2013/09/supreme-court-subsidiary-of-business.html" rel="nofollow">we reported yesterday</a>. She (correctly) warned that the U.S. Supreme Court is about to become a wholly owned subsidiary of Big Business. But she said some other true and powerful things as well -- mostly about organized labor. <br /><br /><a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/elizabeth-warren-slams-corporate-supreme-court">Alternet</a> brought us part of the speech, and we thought you really would want to read it:<br /><blockquote>When important decisions are made in Washington, too often, working families are ignored.  From tax policy to retirement security, the voices of hard-working people get drowned out by powerful industries and well-financed front groups.  Those with power fight to take care of themselves and to feed at the trough for themselves, even when it comes at the expense of working families getting a fair shot at a better future. </blockquote><blockquote>This isn’t new. Throughout our history, powerful interests have tried to capture Washington and rig the system in their favor. But we didn’t roll over. At every turn, in every time of challenge, organized labor has been there, fighting on behalf of the American people. </blockquote><blockquote>At the beginning of the 20th Century, when factories were deathtraps, when owners exploited workers and children, and when robber barons amassed the kind of power and influence that made them think they were modern day kings, the American people came together under the leadership of progressives to bring our nation back from the brink. And labor was there, leading the way. </blockquote><blockquote>Labor was on the front lines to take children out of factories and put them in schools. Labor was there to give meaning to the words "consumer protection" by making our food and medicine safe. Labor was there to fight for minimum wages in states across this country. </blockquote><blockquote>Powerful interests did everything they could to block reform. But our agenda was America’s agenda, and we prevailed. </blockquote><blockquote>A generation later, when our country was mired in the Great Depression, when people were on bread lines and looking for work, we fought back.  We created jobs by investing in infrastructure and public works. We brought light and power to our poorest and most remote areas. We established federal laws on wages and hours. We enshrined into law the right to organize. We made banking boring and put real cops on the beat on Wall Street. And because we believed those in old age should not be mired in poverty, we created Social Security.  And all along that journey, labor was there, leading the way. </blockquote><blockquote>Once again, the powerful interests did everything they could to stop it. But our agenda was America’s agenda, and we prevailed. </blockquote><blockquote>When political injustice threatened to break our democracy, members of the labor movement were there, working for jobs and freedom, marching right alongside the Reverend Dr. King, fighting together for the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act. </blockquote><blockquote>When hard working families were getting squeezed, labor was there, fighting alongside our beloved Ted Kennedy, and now we have the Family and Medical Leave Act, we have the Lilly Ledbetter Act, and we have continued to protect Medicare. </blockquote><blockquote>And in 2008, when the economy crashed and it was time to reign in financial predators and Wall Street banks, labor was there—you were there—standing shoulder to shoulder with me, standing with President Obama, and fighting for consumer protection. And thanks to those efforts, we now have a strong Consumer Financial Protection Bureau – with a confirmed Director to lead it. And just so everyone knows, that little agency has already returned half a billion dollars to families who were cheated by big financial institutions and helped tens of thousands of consumers solve their problems with big banks. </blockquote><blockquote>In every fight to build opportunity in this country, in every fight to level the playing field, in every fight for working families, we have been on the front lines because our agenda is America’s agenda.</blockquote>Read the whole thing <a href="http://www.alternet.org/economy/elizabeth-warren-slams-corporate-supreme-court" rel="nofollow">here</a>.

labor history Sen. Elizabeth Warren 'Labor was there, leading the way'

Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren's speech to the AFL-CIO convention over the weekend was even better than we reported yesterday . She...

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