United States Congress - Bernie Sanders' Senate Floor Introduction of the 'Saving American Democracy' Constitutional Amendment lyrics

[Senator Bernie Sanders] In my view, a corporation is not a person. In my view, a corporation does not have First Amendment rights, to spend as much money as it wants without disclosure, on a political campaign. In my view, corporations should not be able to go into their treasuries, spend millions and millions of dollars, on a campaign, in order to buy elections. I do not believe that that is what American democracy is supposed to be about. I do not believe that that is what the bravest of the brave, from our country, fighting for democracy, fought and died to preserve. Make no mistake: the *Citizens United* ruling has radically changed the nature of our democracy. Further tilting the balance of the power towards the rich and the powerful, at a time when already the wealthiest people in this country have never had it so good. In my view, history will record, that the Supreme Court's Citizens United decision, is one of the worst decisions ever made by a Supreme Court, the history of our country...while the campaign finance system we had before Citizens United was, in my view, was a disaster...as a result of Citizens United that bad situation has been made much worse. According to an October 10th, 2011 article in Politico, "the billionaire industrialist brothers David and Charles Koch plan to steer more than $200 million, potentially much more, to conservative groups ahead of Election Day 2012." Is that really the democracy that Americans fought and died for in war after war? I think not. What happens here, on the floor of the Senate? The six largest banks on Wall Street have a**ets equal to over 65% of our GDP. Over $9 trillion...six banks. Now when an issue comes up that impacts Wall Street, some of us, for example, think it might be a good idea to break up these huge banks. And members walk up to the desk up there and they have to decide. Am I going to vote for this, am I going to vote against it? With full knowledge, that if they vote against the interests of Wall Street, that two weeks later, there may be ads coming down into their state attacking them. Every member of the Senate, every member of the House, in the back of their minds will be thinking, "Gee, if I cast the vote this way, if I take on some big money interest, am I going to be punished for that? Will a huge amount of money be unleashed in my state?" Everybody here understands that that's true. It's not just taking on Wall Street, maybe it's taking on the drug companies, maybe it's taking on the private insurance companies, maybe it's taking on the military industrial complex. But whatever powerful and wealthy special interest you are prepared to take on, on behalf of the interest of the middle cla** and working families of this country, when you walk up to that desk and you cast that vote, you know in the back of your mind, that you may be unleashing a tsunami of money coming into your state, and you're going to think twice about how you cast that vote. We have got to send a Constitutional Amendment to the states that says simply and straightforwardly what everyone except five members of the United States Supreme Court seem to understand and that is corporations are not people. Bank of America is not a person. ExxonMobil is not a person.