Who Stands to Benefit the Most from Carl Icahn's New Super PAC? Carl Icahn.

The nation's political system just doesn't have enough influence from the billionaire class. As absurd as it may sound, billionaire Carl Icahn's recent decision to launch a super PAC with $150 million of his reported $21 billion fortune was based on this sentiment.

What does Icahn hope to accomplish with this venture? Lower taxes for himself and his friends, of course. Icahn has targeted corporate tax reform, specifically the provisions enabling companies to defer the taxes owed on their overseas profits. Unsurprisingly, he'd prefer to enable tax dodging companies with funds in offshore tax shelters to bring the money home at a significantly reduced tax rate.

Icahn, who ranks number 22 on the Forbes list of American billionaires, is a major shareholder of Apple. This company holds a reported $181 billion in offshore tax shelters and stands to benefit tremendously from the changes Icahn seeks.

While Icahn's audacious actions should certainly turn heads, he is simply the latest billionaire to make news for trying to buy influence in our broken electoral system. The New York Times recently reported that just 158 families provided half of the early contributions to presidential candidates this cycle. In fact, as an older, white, self-made, urban Republican financier, Icahn fits in the most common demographic of this group.

All told, less than one quarter of one percent of the American population contribute more than $200 to political campaigns, parties, or PACs. Only four-hundredths of one percent give more than $2,600 in an election cycle. That's just two out of every five thousand people! And that money's well spent, too. A major study from Princeton published last year showed that economic elites and business groups have substantial power over U.S. government policymaking while the vast majority of Americans do not.

Former President Jimmy Carter recently made headlines by calling the United States "an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery." He went on to say, "We've just seen a complete subversion of our political system as a payoff to the major contributors, who want and expect and sometimes get favors for themselves after the election's over."

Given the Times reporting, Icahn's recent actions, and countless other examples of legal bribery by the billionaire class in recent years, Carter's statement is far from unfounded. What is remarkable is that a former U.S. President is speaking so plainly about the condition of our modern electoral system and that a billionaire is so brazen in his efforts to subvert the legislative process to his benefit.

Efforts to fix our broken campaign finance system are underway by groups like Represent.us and Move to Amend and by the quixotic Presidential candidate Larry Lessig. These efforts push back against innumerable odds but build support for a widespread grassroots movement. This movement might be the only thing able to counter the immense influence of the billionaire class.