The White HouseOffice of the Press SecretaryFor Immediate ReleaseAugust 21, 2010
Weekly Address: President Obama Challenges Politicians Benefitingfrom Citizens United Ruling to Defend Corporate Influence in OurElections
WASHINGTON – In this week’s address, the President urged Republican leaders inCongress to end their obstruction of a bipartisan bill that will reduce the influencewielded by corporations and foreign entities. The President vowed to continue the fightfor reform and transparency, and said elected officials who benefit from corporate or foreign-funded ads should either defend the ads or join the bipartisan effort to stop them.The full audio of the address isHERE. The video can be viewed onlinehere.
Remarks of President Barack ObamaWeekly AddressAugust 21, 2010
As the political season heats up, Americans are already being inundated with the usual phone calls, mailings, and TV ads from campaigns all across the country. But thissummer, 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 theCitizens United case – a decision that now allows big corporations to spend unlimitedamounts 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’sBP. You don’t know if it’s a big insurance company or a Wall Street Bank. A group canhide behind a phony name like “Citizens for a Better Future,” even if a more accuratename would be “Corporations for Weaker Oversight.”We tried to fix this last month. There was a proposal supported by Democrats andRepublicans that would’ve required corporate political advertisers to reveal who’sfunding their activities. When special interests take to the airwaves, whoever is runningand 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 toinfluence American elections – just as they were in the past.
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President Obama's Weekly Address, "No Corporate Takeover of Our Democracy"
The President calls out Republicans for blocking campaign finance reforms that would address the Supreme Court decision opening the floodgates of corporate money into elections.
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