Obama warns of 'corporate takeover'

WASHINGTON, Aug. 20 (UPI) -- U.S. President Barack Obama Saturday warned of a "corporate takeover" of democracy and said Republicans want the public kept "in the dark" on campaign funding.

In his weekly radio and Internet address, the Democratic president found fault with a Supreme Court ruling that permits corporations, unions and other organizations to spend "unlimited amounts of money to influence our elections."

"They can buy millions of dollars worth of TV ads -- and worst of all, they don't even have to reveal who is actually paying for them," he said.

"A group can hide behind a phony name like 'Citizens for a Better Future,' even if a more accurate name would be 'Corporations for Weaker Oversight.'"

He blamed GOP leaders for killing legislation this summer that would require "corporate political advertisers to reveal who's funding their activities."

"But the Republican leaders in Congress said no," Obama said. "In fact, they used their power to block the issue from even coming up for a vote.

"This can only mean that the leaders of the other party want to keep the public in the dark.

"Well, we cannot allow the corporate takeover of our democracy," he said, while urging Americans to "challenge every elected official who benefits from these ads to defend this practice or join us in stopping it."