President Obama's Weekly Address: A Pledge to Keep Voices of Everyday Americans Above Special Interests

Following this week's Supreme Court decision in Citizens United vs FEC, President Obama used his weekly address to reaffirm his commitment to keep the voices of everyday Americans the strongest voices in Washington. President Obama lamented that, despite his administration's historic reforms aimed at improving government transparency, the Supreme Court's ruling on Thursday threatens years of bi-partisan cooperation and movement towards openness in government:

We’ve been making steady progress. But this week, the United States Supreme Court handed a huge victory to the special interests and their lobbyists – and a powerful blow to our efforts to rein in corporate influence. This ruling strikes at our democracy itself. By a 5-4 vote, the Court overturned more than a century of law – including a bipartisan campaign finance law written by Senators John McCain and Russ Feingold that had barred corporations from using their financial clout to directly interfere with elections by running advertisements for or against candidates in the crucial closing weeks.

President Obama announced that his staff had already begun working with a bi-partisan coalition on the Hill to craft a legislative response to SCOTUS' narrow decision. You can read the transcript of President Obama's remarks here and watch the YouTube video of the address below.