How Are America's Corporations Getting Away with Buying Our Votes?

The recent Supreme Court decision that allows corporations to spend unlimited funds for political ads is just an affirmation of the current reality. Corporations already spend millions to influence the votes of Congressional members and for general political issue advertising. But how are they getting away with it? How are they spending these millions without leaving a paper trail or even a shred of transparency?

The key to corporate influence over the political discourse of this country is the trade association. Some have likened the trade association to a Swiss bank, because the corporations who have donated funds to it are not revealed in lists of individual donations.

What are the most prominent trade associations?

It may surprise you to learn that the most influential and best-funded trade association is the Chamber of Commerce. There are others with deep pockets, too, who have gained some prominence (or one might call it notoriety) for their role in defeating attempts to create a national healthcare program. These include such entities as America's Health Insurance Plans (AHIP) and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA), both of which have spent multi-millions on anti-reform attack ads.

But the Chamber of Commerce is much larger than any other trade association. Since Thomas J. Donahue became president in 1997, the chamber has been a de-facto Republican party organ. It has funneled money into targeting sitting judges, for instance, in order to elect more pro-business judges.

But what kind of disclosure is required of the Chamber or any other trade association? While they do have to file paperwork with the FEC (Federal Election Commission, which closed for lack of funds during the 2008 presidential election season), they do not have to disclose where the funds came from. AND as long as their donors do not expressly earmark their donations for political ads, the Chamber does not have to make any such disclosure to the FEC.

This is a very sweet arrangement for the Chamber or indeed for any other trade association. But this is 'how things are done' in our Capitol and in our current broken-down republic. Ordinary citizens who wish to make their views known have an uphill fight to overcome the effect of concentrated funding for or against any pending legislation.