$$$ in perspective

$2,900,000,000,000 - the annual amount spent by the federal government
    $2,300,000,000 - Bank of America's annual marketing budget
        $8,531,000 - average amount spent by a senator running for election
        $1,372,000 - average amount spent by a congressman running for election

So if you were a company regulated by the government (or a federal contractor paid by the government), and you had a big pot of money to spend which was far bigger than the typical amount spent by someone running for election, don't you think it would be pretty easy to intimidate a candidate into voting your way? Or to essentially pay them to do so?

That is the new world we're living in after yesterday's Supreme Court decision. More from Ezra Klein and Matthew Yglesias here.