President Barack Obama yesterday held an impromptu session on Reddit, an online community, and floated the idea of a constitutional amendment to overturn Citizens United saying, “Money has always been a factor in politics, but we are seeing something new in the no-holds barred flow of seven and eight figure checks, most undisclosed, into super-PACs.”
“President Obama is wrong – federal law requires Super PACs to report every penny of contributions, and they must identify all donors over $200,” said David Keating, president of the Center for Competitive Politics (CCP).
“Large contributions can empower ‘the little guy’ too,” noted Brad Smith, chairman of CCP. “When Ross Perot spent his own money to run, he didn’t drown others out – he empowered them. When large donors supported independent expenditures promoting the campaigns of Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich, they made the supporters of those candidates heard too.”