Bring on the Corporate Bribes

After the Supreme Court decided that limiting corporate speech amounted to limiting individual speech, thus violating the First Amendment, roughly half of America began running through the streets screaming bloody murder.

I'm here to explain to you why those people are idiots.

Over the past several decades, America has been running an experiment to answer this very question:

What happens when corporations are allowed to spend as much as they want on elections?

You might not know it, but about half the states make no restrictions on what corporations or labor unions can spend on state elections.

Governing Magazine, in collaboration with the Pew Center On The States, releases an annual "Grading the States Report Card," where they compare the governments of all 50 states.

According to the report card, the top three states were Washington, Utah, and Virgina. They each recieved A-minus. And all three allow unlimited spending by corporations and labor unions.


California does not limit corporate spending.

Some facts about California's top campaign contributors:

The Top 10 contributers gave $42 million. Of the Top 10 contributers, 2 were corporations, who gave a combined $7 million.

The Top 3 contributers:

A father and his daughter - $8 million
Alliance for a Better California - $5 million
An Indian Tribe - $4 million

That means, of the $42 million given by the Top 10 contributors, $35 million came from individuals, labor unions, indian tribes, teachers, and prison guards.

So boo fucking hoo, corporations can spend on campaigns, it won't make a bit of difference, so will you idiots do us all a favor and kindly shut the hell up about it already?

[NPR Planet Money]