Warning of a potential corporate takeover of our elections,US President Barack Obama increased pressure on Congress on Saturday to pass reforms to limit companies ability to influence political campaigns. Obamas remarks,made in his weekly radio and Internet address,came after Democratic lawmakers introduced legislation on Thursday to blunt the impact of a January US Supreme Court ruling that allows corporations,unions and other groups to spend unlimited funds on political campaigns. Obama,who vehemently opposed the Supreme Court ruling and drew criticism for lambasting it in the presence of the court justices at his State of the Union address earlier this year,endorsed the new Democratic legislation and used strong language to encourage lawmakers to turn it into law. What we are facing is no less than a potential corporate takeover of our elections. And what is at stake is no less than the integrity of our democracy, he said. The measures would require corporate,union and advocacy group leaders to disclose their names in TV ads. It would ban election spending by government contractors,companies with more than 20 per cent foreign ownership and bank bailout recipients. Under the bill Congress will consider,well make sure that foreign corporations and foreign nationals are restricted from spending money to influence American elections,just as they were in the past even through US subsidiaries, Obama said in the address.
