As Supreme Court Unleashes Corporate Money in Campaigns, the Time for Real Reform is Now

In the landmark Citizens United v. FEC ruling released today, the Supreme Court dismantled a century of precedent limiting corporate spending money on political campaigns. Former Senators Bill Bradley, Bob Kerrey, Warren Rudman, and Al Simpson led the You Street call for a sweeping overhaul of our campaign finance system, challenging Congress and the President to respond forcefully by passing the citizen-funded Fair Elections Now Act.

Former Senator Bill Bradley (D-NJ):

“For more than a century, reformers have sought to curb corporate influence in our government through commonsense limits on corporate spending in federal elections. Now the Supreme Court has reversed that precedent by asserting that corporations are free to spend unlimited sums of money to influence campaigns. The Court is not accountable to the people, but Congress ought to be. It’s time Congress stood up for the rights of ordinary citizens by preventing unlimited corporate spending and passing the only long-term reform solution to influence-peddling in Washington: publicly-funded Fair Elections.”

Former Senator Warren Rudman (R-NH):

“Today’s Supreme Court ruling reinforces the overwhelming cynicism of the American people in their government. That cynicism is caused by the widespread feeling that Congress has been corrupted by special interest money. I know of only one way to fundamentally address this problem: a publicly-funded Fair Elections program that replaces big money in campaigns with broad-based small donations and matching public funds for qualifying candidates.”

Former Senator Bob Kerrey (D-NE):

“The Supreme Court has shown that it is more concerned with protecting free speech “rights” of wealthy corporations than those of ordinary Americans in the political debate. But speech isn’t free when only the rich can get heard. Congress must now work to expand political speech for the benefit of all citizens by replacing special interest money with publicly-funded elections.”

Former Senator Alan Simpson (R-WY):

“The current big money system is bad for taxpayers and bad for the economy, and it will only get worse if the Supreme Court’s decision is not met with a swift response by Congress to curb corporate and union spending and pass Fair Elections. The amount of wasteful spending we see today through earmarks and pork barrel spending is an abomination. At $1-$2 billion a year, the price of citizen funded elections pales in comparison to the tens of billions in taxpayer money going to benefit big contributors.”

Senators Bradley, Kerrey, Rudman, and Simpson are co-chairs of Americans for Campaign Reform and the You Street campaign.