This topic has been broached here (and here) before. And there has been movement elsewhere in the state. Now, who on Richmond City Council will put forward the resolution of support? Certainly we have seen plenty of corporate manipulation on the local level.
From MoveToAmend.org:
Reps. Nolan & Pocan Respond to Hundreds of Local Resolutions Calling for “We the People” Amendment
(Washington D.C.) – The movement for constitutional reforms that would end what organizers call “corporate rule” has arrived in the chambers of Congress. This morning, two members of the U.S. House of Representatives joined Move to Amend by announcing their sponsorship of the “We the People Amendment,” which clearly and unequivocally states that:
Rights recognized under the Constitution belong to human beings only, and not to government-created artificial legal entities such as corporations and limited liability companies; and
Political campaign spending is not a form of speech protected under the First Amendment.
In making the announcement, lead sponsor Rep. Rick Nolan (DFL-Minnesota), said: “It’s time to take the shaping and molding of public policy out of corporate boardrooms, away from the corporate lobbyists, and put it back in city halls – back with county boards and state legislatures – and back in the Congress where it belongs.”Ben Manski, a spokesperson for Move to Amend, agreed, saying: “Today, members of Congress join a movement that insists on the fundamental equality of all Americans, and that rejects the idea that the corporate class should have special protections against We the People.”
The Move to Amend coalition was formed in 2009 in preparation for the Supreme Court’s 2010 Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission decision. Today, the coalition of nearly 260,000 people and hundreds of organizations has helped to pass nearly 500 resolutions in municipalities and local governments across the country calling on the state and federal governments to adopt this amendment.
The Move to Amend coalition makes a point of differentiating themselves from the other proposals that have come forward in response to Citizens United. “In every single community where Americans have had the opportunity to call for a Constitutional amendment to outlaw corporate personhood, they have seized it and voted yes overwhelmingly, stated George Friday, Move to Amend spokesperson. “The Citizens Uniteddecision is not the cause, it is a symptom. We must remove big money and special interests from the legal and political process entirely.”
# # #
Read the text of the We the People Amendment by clicking here.
WHEREAS, We the people adopted and ratified the United States Constitution to protect the free speech and other rights of people, not corporations; and
WHEREAS, Corporations are not people but instead are entities created by the law of states and nations; and
WHEREAS; for the past three decades, a divided United States Supreme Court has erroneously transformed the First Amendment into a powerful tool for corporations seeking to evade and invalidate the people’s laws; and
WHEREAS, Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, relying on prior decisions, interpreted the First Amendment of the Constitution to afford corporations the same free speech protections as natural persons; and
WHEREAS, Citizens United overturned longstanding precedent prohibiting corporations from spending corporate general treasury funds in our elections; and
WHEREAS, Citizens United unleashed a torrent of corporate money in our political process unmatched by any campaign expenditure totals in United States history; and
WHEREAS, Citizens United purports to invalidate state laws and even state Constitutional provisions separating corporate money from elections; and
WHEREAS, Citizens United presents a serious and direct threat to our republican democracy; and
WHEREAS, Article V of the United States Constitution empowers and obligates the people and states of the United States of America to use the constitutional amendment process to correct those egregiously wrong decisions of the United States Supreme Court that go to the heart of our democracy and republican self-government; and
WHEREAS, hundreds of municipalities across the nation are joining together to call for an Amendment to the United States Constitution to establish that political speech and spending by corporate entities to influence the political process must be regulated and made subservient to the people’s interest in authentic democracy and self-governance; and
WHEREAS, the people of the United States previously have used the constitutional amendment process to correct decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court that are deemed to be egregious and wrongly decided and which go to the heart of our democracy and self-government.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED THAT WE CALL UPON THE VIRGINIA STATE LEGISLATURE AND THE UNITED STATES CONGRESS TO SUPPORT A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO REVERSE CITIZEN UNITED V FEDERAL ELECTION COMMISSIONAND TO RESTORE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS AND FAIR ELECTIONS TO THE PEOPLE.
By the People of Charlottesville, Va.
[signed]
2012
June 4, 2012: Council voted, and the resolution passed.
What about non-profit organizations?
I am fine with nonprofit organizations like the Sierra Club coming under this also. Too many of them are too partisan already anyway and we need to get away from the current corporate duopoly of Republicrats and get some fresh, better ideas.
From UrbanSurvival.com:
In this fiscal year to date, regular human wage earners have paid $E468.365 billion of income taxes. Corporations, meantime, have paid a lousy $70.26 billion in the same period. So 13.04% of taxes from corps, the rest from real humans. Last year, corporations paid 12.97% of taxes…so they’re doing a lot better than flesh & blooders.
Scott,
How much did corporations pay real humans salary? Answer: 100%
Not true, TOT. A growing, significant percentage of workers on federal, state, and local levels work for the government, not corporations. There is also a growing, significant percentage of people who are self-empoyed and not working for corporations.
But what is really an issue is how corporations are not paying their fair share in taxes-
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/02/us/how-local-taxpayers-bankroll-corporations.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/09/18/are-corporations-overtaxed/
Why don’t you find the stat that shows how much corporations paid in salaries and benefits?! They get to deduct that against their revenue….or is that greedy?!
Scott,
Your urbansurvival stat is flawed because there are more workers than employees, so of course they will pay more as a whole. If you see a fat person standing next to a thin person, you would probably assume that the fat person is stealing food from the skinny person: jump to conclusion as they say!
Whoops…meant to say ‘more workers than corporations’ in above comment
We can slice the stats a lot of ways but the political points remain-
Corporations should not have the same rights as citizens.
Money should not equal speech.
http://www.truth-out.org/buzzflash/commentary/item/11527-wealthy-individuals-and-corporations-not-middleclass-wage-earners-have-taken-your-money
Half of America has been deceived into believing that union employees and government workers are the problem in our country. The following five facts all send the same message to voters: Wealthy individuals and corporations, not middle-class wage earners, have taken your money.
(1) $430 billion: The total payroll for federal and state employees in 2010. This is less than the amount of untaxed cash being held overseas by non-financial corporations. Local government payrolls bring the total up to about $1 trillion, still less than the total amount of cash being held by non-financial corporations.
(2) $800 billion: The total earnings of unionized employees in 2011. Even though union members make up about 12% of the workforce, their total pay amounts to just 10% of adjusted gross income as reported to the IRS.
(3) $900 billion: The total salaries of corporate executives and financial industry employees. CEOs and managers and finance workers made more than ALL 16 million unionized employees in the United States. They made almost as much as ALL 17.5 million full-time government workers in the United States.
(4) $1 trillion: The 30-year redistribution of income to the rich. Since 1980 our country’s productivity has steadily risen, with total income doubling approximately every 10 years. If the bottom 90% of America had shared in this prosperity at a level consistent with 1980 incomes, they would be making $45,000 a year instead of $35,000. Instead, the richest 1% TRIPLED their share. That’s an extra trillion dollars a year.
(5) 22 cents: What corporations are willing to pay to support government. For every dollar of workers’ payroll tax paid in the 1950s, corporations paid three dollars in income taxes. Now it’s 22 cents. Despite a doubling of corporate profits to $2 trillion in less than ten years, the corporate income tax rate, which for thirty years hovered around the 20-25% level, suddenly dropped to 10% after the recession, and has remained there for three years.
The UrbanSurvival comment was based on stats from this:
http://www.fms.treas.gov/mts/mts0113.pdf
WE THE PEOPLE AMENDMENT UPDATE is officially “House Joint Resolution 29”, Introduced by Reps. Nolan and Pocan. The amendment will be recorded as being officially filed today, February 14, 2013 (there was a paperwork delay on the part of the House administrative office due to the State of the Union). Huzzahs all around!
It’s important to look at what losses the corporations are taking against their profits once they deducted their expenses.
Of course, corporations could say ‘screw it’ and just move out of the country. A great example is all the companies moving out of California.
What size shirt do you wear Burgs?
http://www.zazzle.com/i_heart_corporations_tshirt-235029347727995868
And what does this have to with Oregon Hill? I understand you run this blog but leave your political diarrhea on something not related to Oregon Hill.
As I have stated before, I make no apologies for the occasional editorial on here. I see it in opposition to much of the editorial content in the local corporate media.
Oregon Hill has certainly had issues with corporate hegemony over the years.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/deadrichmond/2449434963/
By the way, a bonus quote-
“All contributions by corporations to any political committee or for any political purpose should be forbidden by law”.
-Theodore Roosevelt
http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/02/crew_irs_lawsuit.php?ref=fpnewsfeed