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A billion dollars. A BILLION dollars.

Imagine how that money could be used to help Americans in need.

The L.A. Times is reporting that retired Justice John Paul Stevens, who dissented from the 2010 Citizens United decision, said that President Obama was right in challenging the court’s opinion during a State of the Union speech.

He was right to say that the president was right:

“First, it did reverse a century of law; second, it did authorize unlimited election-related expenditures by America’s most powerful interests; and, third, the logic of the opinion extends to money spent by foreign entities.” [...]

“During the televised debates among the Republican candidates for the presidency, the moderators made an effort to allow each speaker an equal opportunity to express his or her views,” he said, speaking in Little Rock, Ark. If there were six candidates, he said, they were given roughly the same amount of time to speak.

“Both the candidates and the audience would surely have thought the value of the debate to have suffered if the moderator had allocated the time on the basis of the speakers’ wealth, or it they had held an auction allowing the most time to the highest bidder,” Stevens said.

That sums it up so well, so simply, that even a conservative can understand it.

Scroll through our posts about Citizens United here, and be sure to have some Tums nearby.