Political Quotes

“Madam President, last year, the Supreme Court issued a decision in a case named Citizens United v. FEC. In this sweeping decision that ignored decades of precedent, the Supreme Court held that corporations and unions could spend as much money as they want to influence congressional elections. At the time the Court issued this decision, I and others warned that Citizen United would have a negative impact on our democracy and open the floodgates to undisclosed private money in Federal elections. The results of the first congressional elections after Citizens United have been analyzed. Those of us who sounded the alarm about this unfortunate decision were right. In 2010, for the first time ever, spending on House and Senate races exceeded $1.6 billion. Outside groups, now freed from spending limits by Citizens United, spent 335 percent more on congressional campaigns than they did just 4 years earlier. The amount of money that big corporations and special interest lobbyists are willing to spend to shape policy is expected to increase even more in 2012. This dramatic increase in spending tells us that big business is not going to be shy about using its new power to say to Members of Congress: ``If you vote against our business interests, we'll spend millions to make sure you never get the chance to vote against us again.'' That is a terrible reality for Members of Congress evaluating policy options and it is an even worse statement about our democracy.…”