Political Quotes

Jeff Merkley: “Even the corporation itself doesn't know what it is doing; that is, the corporation might have 10,000 shareholders and…”

On the recordJuly 16, 2012
Even the corporation itself doesn't know what it is doing; that is, the corporation might have 10,000 shareholders and they are the cooperation. The corporation is a legal fiction, as our colleague says, that allows a board of directors to make decisions on behalf of those thousands of people who own stock. So they are not spending their own money, they are spending money that belongs to the stockholders. But those stockholders have no idea how that money is being spent under Citizens United. So it is not just corporations spending money that is secret from the rest of us, it is the officers spending it secretly from the corporation itself, and that is the stockholders.
Said by
Jeff Merkley
Democratic · Oregon
Source
govinfo.gov
Jul 16, 2012

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