When last seen, the always, uh, entertaining Congressman Alan Grayson was calling on the U.S. Attorney General to investigate his political critics. Now he’s back with what appears to be an attempted preemptive strike against an anticipated Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United v. FEC. Apparently predicting that the Supreme Court will rule that the government cannot simply prohibit political speech by citizens joined in the corporate form, Grayson has introduced HR 4431, calling for a 500% excise tax on corporate political expenditures.
Something tells us that the idea of taxing political speech at 500% of the funds spent may raise some constitutional issues.
The hysteria being generated by Citizens United is truly remarkable. Already, 28 states, with roughly 60 percent of the nation’s population, allow corporate political expenditures, and these states, such as Utah, Oregon, and Virginia, seem to be surviving. And let us not forget what is really at stake – the government’s position in Citizens United is that it has the authority to ban books and movies, if those are published by corporations (as most are). That this decision is unlikely to be a 9-0 victory for Citizens United is what ought to cause alarm, not the idea that the federal government will be forced to adopt the same legal regime already in place for most state races.