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LurkerJ said:

Lawmakers: The US cannot afford another 10 years of Citizens United

Ten years ago, the Supreme Court's decision in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission unleashed a torrent of outside spending by corporations and wealthy donors who seized the opportunity to buy unlimited influence in Washington. The decision exponentially increased the amount of money in our politics and emboldened foreign actors to corrupt our elections. Our democracy has paid a heavy price.

Since the Citizens United decision, just 10 individuals have injected more than $1.2 billion into our elections, according to the Center for Responsive Politics. Secret money groups have poured $963 million into ads without telling voters who paid for them. And Americans have no way of knowing how much foreign money has infiltrated our elections.

The Citizens United decision ceded unparalleled power to wealthy and well-connected special interests and diminished the voice of regular Americans, leaving people feeling left out and locked out of their own democracy. With millionaires, billionaires and corporations calling the shots in Washington, the American people get short shrift.

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/21/opinions/citizens-united-decision-election-disaster-udall-sarbanes/index.html

Talk about legal meddling. 

That's why in some countries the government officials are not allowed to have any side income whatsoever and the bank accounts are under scrutiny. That way bribing or excessive lobbying is a whole lot more difficult to pull off.