Here in Brazil we are in the middle of a big debate about corporate donations. After the last corruption scandal, in which the involved companies used the donations as a way to pay bribe, a lot of people are very asking for the end of the corporate donations and a (somehow low) roof for citizens donations.

Here are the common arguments:

PRO
- The politicians may feel in debt of a company that donated to them, or at least less inclined to go against the company interests in order to keep receiving donations in the next elections. 
- Would cut a channel used to pay bribe "officially" (as donations don´t need to be explained or justified)
- According to some, corporate donatios/big donations mean in the end that a rich man vote (Bill Gates or Warren Buffet for example) counts a lot more than my vote or your vote, because it comes with some extra millions U$.

CONS
- You end up needing taxpayer money to fund the campaigns, what is considered a bad use of a money that could be used somewhere else (education, health, etc..)
- As the access to this public funding is proportional to the presence of the current parties elected, this is seen as a big move in the maintenance of the status quo (if your party has more congressmen, you get more money for campaign, therefore you have an advantage). If that wasn´t the case, everyone would create their own party to get some money.
- This could be a big obstacle for new parties to be created or to get funding.

I´ve seen great political opinions here in the past, so decided to ask. What do you guys think? 

Changed to Politics Discussion for ya

No.

Money companies spend in bribery will come back plus some. This will come at the expense of taxpayers so at the end it's more expensive than using taxpayer money to fund campaigns.

Parties with big representations are the ones more likely to get big donations which helps them maintaining the status quo as well.

EDIT - Debt condoning from banks should be banned as well because it mimics the same effect.

I forget who it was, but a comedian had a great suggestion (George Carlin or Robin Williams maybe?). We should allow corporations to donate as much as they want, BUT politicians have to wear NASCAR style jackets with the logos of all the companies that support them.

Nop.
Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop Nop
Nop even harder because it's Brazil

Knowing who are going to dig a big hole in the public coffers through budget overruns and other creative ways isn't going to be of much help.

So many millions of dollars wasted on political advertisements. IMO the spending itself is the real problem, the source of the money is just a symptom.

Thank you, and sorry XD

publically owned and traded companies should not donate to politics. the money is "everyones" and the small group of people managing the money shouldn't have the ability to use that money to push their political agendas.

In 2012, both American parties spent over a billion dollars each campaigning. Both Obama and Romney were so set financially that they turned down the government funds normally allotted for campaigns. While the campaign donations by nonhuman entities was not incredibly high for either (Obama's top five donators in 2012 were colleges, liberal tech companies, and somehow the US government despite turning down federal funds, Romney's were all finance companies, and neither was more than $4 million between either top five), there was a billion dollars unaccounted for on both sides because of Super PACs spending limitless sums of money to run attack ads. That's two billion dollars for the election, most likely 70+% of which was donated by companies rather than people.

If you wanna see how bad the Citizens United ruling was for US politics, watch Colbert's segments on the PAC/Super PAC. Incredibly easy to understand just how corrupt it can get and how easy it is to muddy a politician's well of donations with hundreds of millions of dollars they shouldn't be able to get or use.