Obama Criticizes Supreme Court Ruling

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In a 5-to-4 decision The United States Supreme Court ended a 20-year ban on businesses using money from their own funds to pay for campaign ads.

President Obama, in his weekly address said,

"This ruling opens the floodgates for an unlimited amount of special interest money into our democracy. It gives the special interest lobbyists new leverage to spend millions on advertising to persuade elected officials to vote their way – or to punish those who don’t. That means that any public servant who has the courage to stand up to the special interests and stand up for the American people can find himself or herself under assault come election time. Even foreign corporations may now get into the act.

I can’t think of anything more devastating to the public interest. The last thing we need to do is hand more influence to the lobbyists in Washington, or more power to the special interests to tip the outcome of elections."

President Obama reminded the electorate that one of the reasons in ran for office was to reduce or eliminate the influence of special interests and lobbyists in Washington. He vowed to keep fighting to ensure the voices of ordinary American people will be heard over these special interests and lobbyists.

To this end he stated that following this ruling "I instructed my administration to get to work immediately with Members of Congress willing to fight for the American people to develop a forceful, bipartisan response to this decision. We have begun that work, and it will be a priority for us until we repair the damage that has been done."

The Supreme Court decision, according to the Conservative majority, was a vindication, of the First Amendment’s most basic free speech principle — that the government has no business regulating political speech.

The dissenters disagreed. They believe allowing corporate money to flood the political marketplace would corrupt democracy.

The Hoss finds this ruling particularly upsetting.

For example a special interest group, such as health insurance industry, will have even more leverage to fend off reforms that would protect patients.

The Hoss encourages all Americans to support President Obama in his efforts to make sure that the most powerful voice in Washington belongs to the average American and not special interest groups.

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