The only thing that should be secret in a democracy is your ballot on Election Day. Yet today, the 1% can secretly donate millions to SuperPACS and special interest groups.
With the Citizens United ruling, which allowed unlimited corporate spending on federal elections, the wealthiest 1% can unfairly influence the electoral process in secret since they do not have to disclose their political spending or their contributors.
On Monday and Tuesday, the Senate held a cloture vote on the DISCLOSE ACT of 2012 (S. 3369), which would have required SuperPACS, corporations, and other special interest groups to disclose when they donated $10,000 or more to a political campaign within 24 hours. In the past, both Republicans and Democrats favored commonsense campaign finance reform legislation, but extremist Republicans filibustered the measure twice.
The Senators who voted against the DISCLOSE Act made it clear that they are comfortable selling our democracy to the highest bidder.
At a time when our nation's wealth is concentrated in the hands of the few and income inequality is at an historical high, we cannot afford to allow Wall Street bankers, the Koch brothers and the rest of the 1% to continue to unfairly influence our political system.
