Robert Reich,,,, The New York Times reports this morning that more than a dozen prominent Washington think tanks have received tens of millions of dollars from foreign sources in recent years while pushing U.S. government to adopt policies that often reflect the donors’ priorities. But the Times misses the really big story about foreign influence in Washington: Global corporations owned and run largely or partially by non-Americans that since the Supreme Court’s shameful “Citizen’s United” decision have been pouring unlimited sums into election campaigns. This includes major foreign-based banks, pharmaceutical and high-tech companies, as well as American-based global companies whose management and shareholders are substantially non-American. It’s a back door for non-Americans to have their way in our nation’s capital. In 2012 they began donating big-time to SuperPACs and secret 501-c-4 “social welfare” entities that don’t have to disclose sources of their money, and the sums are increasing. Its exactly what Justice John Paul Stevens anticipated in his prescient dissent in the case. This is why all political expenditures must be fully disclosed, why public corporations must report all campaign contributions, and Citizens United must be reversed if not by the Court then by constitutional amendment. Its also why corporations using tax inversions to desert the United States must no longer have a voice in American politics.
Posted on: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 20:15:55 +0000
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