Small Businesses: Citizens United Hurts Us (for 1/21/12)

Two of every three U.S. small business owners say that the Supreme Court's January 2010 decision in Citizens' United harms them. The American Sustainable Business Council and Main Street Alliance asked 500 of them in a recent survey and they said money that big corporations spend in political campaigns hurts small businesses. Big corporations can spend their money to get special tax breaks and relief from regulations that they oppose. They can also use their economies of scale, large bank accounts, and the thousands of employees they have to find those hidden tax breaks that overburdened small business owners do not have the time to find. http://mainstreetalliance.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/Release-smallbusinesspoll-CitizensUnited.pdf

Citizens United Allows Big Lobbying Firms to Spend $4 Billion on Elections (for 1/19/12)

Two years ago at this time, the Supreme Court ruled in Citizens United that corporations could spend unlimited, often secret, amounts of money on elections. It allows corporations to spend secretively on attack ads against candidates who intend to regulate and reform their industries. Fossil fuel and healthcare companies will run ads on issues central to their businesses to try to influence the 2012 elections. One can only suspect that many of these corporations will run ads that will protect their bottom lines and deceive the public. These ads will also ignore income inequality. Wall Street banks will likely run ads favoring financial deregulation that will ultimately screw over consumers. Energy companies will continue to run ads saying that fighting global warming by curbing our use coal, oil, and gas will hurt our economy. http://www.alternet.org/investigations/153813/thanks_to_citizens_united%2C_multinational_mega_lobbyist_firm_salivates_over_%244_billion_in_campaign_cash_/

Four Times More Illegal Corporate Political Spending (for 1/12/12)

Just one percent of respondents to the 2009 National Business Ethics Survey saw businesses breaking the law on political spending. That just jumped to four percent. The big reason this activity is occurring is the upcoming 2012 Election, with many in the business community dissatisfied with President Obama's handling of the economy. The Supreme Court's 5-4 decision on Citizens United in January 2010 is the vehicle that let this happen, by allowing unlimited campaign spending by third parties without disclosure. Also, employees report more instances of bribery and illegal payments to governing authorities. http://thinkprogress.org/justice/2012/01/12/403738/survey-illegal-corporate-campaign-contributions-up-400/