White House: Time To Reverse’Dark Money’ Trend From Citizens United

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill on Tuesday, Jan. 20, 2015, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mandel Ngan, Pool)
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

On the fifth anniversary of the Supreme Court’s Citizen’s United, the White House said it was time to reverse the flow of “dark money” spilling over into campaigns.

The High Court’s decision, which came down in a 5-4 ruling, allowed unlimited spending by unions and corporations.

Since the ruling, 40 percent of all reported funding not directly attributed to a political party came from organizations connected to one candidate or one political party, according to an analysis by the Center for Responsive Politics highlighted by The Huffington Post.

Here’s the full White House statement:

Our democracy works best when everyone’s voice is heard, and no one’s voice is drowned out. But five years ago, a Supreme Court ruling allowed big companies – including foreign corporations – to spend unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections. The Citizens United decision was wrong, and it has caused real harm to our democracy. With each new campaign season, this dark money floods our airwaves with more and more political ads that pull our politics into the gutter. It’s time to reverse this trend. Rather than bolster the power of lobbyists and special interests, Washington should lift up the voices of ordinary Americans and protect their democratic right to determine the direction of the country that we love.

Latest Livewire
11
Show Comments

Notable Replies

  1. “Rather than bolster the power of lobbyists and special interests, Washington should lift up the voices of ordinary Americans and protect their democratic right to determine the direction of the country that we love.”

    And, of course, the only thing the GOP/Teatrolls want less than this is more brown people.

  2. Perfect use of the SOTU speech. Just propose a buncha stuff that people want but Republicans will NEVER do in order to show them as the Party of Nothing.

  3. Time to start the meme that ISIS is funneling money into our elections, to get Sharia law enacted. We NEED transparency to stop the terrorists! I think I’m going to foxnation to start this right now.

  4. Know nothing, do nothing.

  5. ONCE agaiN BALACk insanE nOBAMA plaYS the ‘RACE cARD"’ ApoloGist LIBtard!1!!!1!one!!!1!!!.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

5 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for austin_dave Avatar for english Avatar for mmurdoch Avatar for fargo116 Avatar for sniffit Avatar for korvu Avatar for theghostofeustacetilley Avatar for meta Avatar for zeus83

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: