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The President: As the political season heats up,
Americans are already being inundated with the usual phone
calls and mailings and TV ads from campaigns all across the country.
But this summer, they're also seeing a flood of attack ads run
by shadowy groups with harmless-sounding names.
We don't know who's behind these ads and we don't know who's
paying for them.
The reason this is happening is because of a decision by the
Supreme Court in the Citizens United case --
a decision that now allows big corporations to spend unlimited
amounts of money to influence our elections.
They can buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads --
and worst of all, they don't even have to reveal who is
actually paying for them.
You don't know if it's a foreign-controlled corporation.
You don't know if it's BP.
You don't know if it's a big insurance company or a Wall Street Bank.
A group can hide behind a phony name like "Citizens for a Better
Future," even if a more accurate name would be "Corporations for
Weaker Oversight."
We tried to fix this last month.
There was a proposal supported by Democrats and Republicans
that would've required corporate political advertisers to reveal
who's funding their activities.
When special interests take to the airwaves,
whoever is running and funding the ad would have to appear in
the advertisement and take responsibility for it --
like a company's CEO or an organization's biggest contributor.
And foreign-controlled corporations and entities would
be restricted from spending money to influence American
elections -- just as they were in the past.
You would think that making these reforms would be a matter
of common sense.
You'd think that reducing corporate and even foreign
influence over our elections wouldn't be a partisan issue.
But the Republican leaders in Congress said no.
In fact, they used their power to block the issue from even
coming up for a vote.
This can only mean that the leaders of the other party want
to keep the public in the dark.
They don't want you to know which interests are paying for the ads.
The only people who don't want to disclose the truth are people
with something to hide.
Well, we cannot allow the corporate takeover of our democracy.
So we're going to continue to fight for reform and transparency.
And I urge all of you to take up the same fight.
Let's challenge every elected official who benefits from these
ads to defend this practice or join us in stopping it.
At a time of such challenge for America,
we can't afford these political games.
Millions of Americans are struggling to get by,
and their voices shouldn't be drowned out by millions of
dollars in secret, special interest advertising.
Their voices should be heard.
Let's not forget that a century ago,
it was a Republican President -- Teddy Roosevelt --
who first tried to tackle the issue of corporate influence on
our elections.
He actually called it "one of the principal sources of
corruption in our political affairs."
And he proposed strict limits on corporate influence in elections.
"Every special interest is entitled to justice," he said.
"but not one is entitled to a vote in Congress,
to a voice on the bench, or to representation in any public office."
We now face a similar challenge, and a similar opportunity to
prevent special interests from gaining even more clout in Washington.
This shouldn't be a Democratic issue or a Republican issue.
This is an issue that goes to whether or not we have a
democracy that works for ordinary Americans --
a government of, by, and for the people.
Let's show the cynics and the special interests that we still can.