We’ve lost our way when corporations are people, money is free speech, and politicians are for sale to the highest bidder. We’ve already seen the outcome: big corporations get massive taxpayer handouts, gut safety regulations, and take away the rights of workers — while sticking American families with the bill.
The American people won’t catch a break until we have a government by and for all of us — not bought and paid for by Wall Street, Big Oil, and corporate lobbyists.
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- In modern elections, nine out of 10 congressional races are won by the candidate who raises the most campaign cash.
- Citizens United eliminated the restrictions on corporations from directly spending unlimited amounts in our elections — and now they get to do it in secret and without any accountability to the public.
- The Citizens United ruling is responsible for the rise of "super PACs," which can receive unlimited contributions and make unlimited campaign expenditures for or against a candidate — all under disclosure rules with so many loopholes that it’s essentially a form of legal money laundering.
- A new poll shows over 60% of Americans oppose the Citizens United decision, and 80% agree there is too much big money spent on political campaigns and elections today.
- If the largest 100 corporations spend just 1% of their profits on electing or defeating politicians, they would still outspend all current political spending by all the political parties and all of the federal political action committees combined.
- The impact of the Citizens United ruling was immediate and dramatic. In 2010, the first election cycle since the decision —
- Outside groups backed by corporations spent $300 million on political ads and campaigns — that’s more than double the amount of outside spending from in 2008 before the decision — and half of it came from undisclosed sources.
- In 60 of the 75 congressional races in which power changed hands, the unaccountable outside groups backed the winners, spending freely and overwhelmingly on negative ads.
- Political campaign ad spending hit a record $2.3 billion, which is expected to be shattered in the 2012 election cycle.
- Outside political spending has favored Republican politicians by two and a half times over the past three years.
- The Koch brothers, with an estimated $50 billion fortune, already bankroll the campaigns of many Republicans in Congress and have vowed to spend over $200 million in the 2012 election cycle.