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Report | PennPIRG Education Fund | Democracy

Business Spending on Super PACs

Contrary to the Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling, for-profit businesses should not be permitted to spend treasury funds to influence elections. First, most businesses are constrained to participate only to maximize private profit, rather than out of regard for the public good. More important, this spending undermines political equality by allowing wealthy institutions to translate economic success into political power.

Report | PennPIRG Education Fund | Democracy

Auctioning Democracy

Scholarly and public opinion research demonstrates that big-money dominance of campaigns skews American politics because wealthy donors have different life experiences and policy preferences than average-earning citi- zens.

News Release | PennPIRG Education Fund | Democracy

New Report Released: Auctioning Democracy: The Rise of Super PACs and the 2012 Election

Philadelphia, PA – Today the PennPIRG Education Fund and Demos released a new analysis of the funding sources for the campaign finance behemoths, Super PACs. The findings confirmed what many have predicted in the wake of the Supreme Court’s damaging Citizens United decision: since their inception in 2010, Super PACs have been primarily funded by a small segment of very wealthy individuals and business interests, with a small but significant amount of funds coming from secret sources.

 

Corporations that Spend More on Lobbying than Taxes

Thursday, January 19, 2012
By | Phineas Baxandall
Senior Analyst for Tax and Budget Policy

Two years ago the Supreme Court's misguided Citizens United decision struck down long-standing Congressional limits on the political power of large corporations by vastly expanding the legal metaphor that "corporations are people." Now there is fresh evidence that corporate influence over Congress makes it easy for those same corporations to avoid their civic duty of paying taxes.

Report | PennPIRG Education Fund | Democracy

Representation Without Taxation

Marking the second anniversary of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission case—which opened the floodgates to corporate spending on elections—this report takes a hard look at the lobbying activities of profitable Fortune 500 companies that exploit loopholes and distort the tax code to avoid billions of dollars in taxes.

News Release | PennPIRG Education Fund | Democracy, Tax

Thirty Fortune 500 Companies Paid More to Lobby Congress Than They Did in Federal Income Taxes, PennPIRG Study Shows

PHILADELPHIA, Jan. 18 – With the second anniversary approaching of the Supreme Court’s decision in the Citizens United case, which opened the floodgates to corporate spending on elections, PennPIRG and Citizens for Tax Justice reveal 30 corporations that spent more to lobby Congress than they did in taxes.

News Release | PennPIRG | Democracy

Citizens United Supreme Court Opinion Widens Corporate “Personhood” Rights

WASHINGTON, Jan. 21 - Today’s U.S. Supreme Court decision in Citizen’s United vs. Federal Election Commission will significantly expand the role that the most powerful corporations play in election financing.

Reducing political access of powerful interests

Tuesday, February 13, 2007
By

The new Congress deserves credit for quickly and strongly responding to the scandals of last year by passing sweeping changes to the rules that will reduce the special access of wealthy and powerful interests in Washington.  It was a critical first step. We now urge you to finish the job by supporting legislation that will ensure that the new rules will be adequately enforced.  Today, we ask you to be a co-sponsor legislation introduced by Sens. Lieberman, Collins and Obama to enforce the rules.

Resource | Budget, Consumer Protection, Democracy, Financial Reform, Food, Health Care, Higher Ed, Safe Energy, Solid Waste, Tax, Transportation

Beat High Bank Fees

Banks rely on consumer indifference when they raise fees. They count on consumers not shopping around. PIRG’s Big Banks, Bigger Fees reports routinely find that small banks and credit unions are not following the big banks’ lead; they still offer many free or low cost accounts.

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