Posted on 02/22/2021 12:45:11 PM PST by amorphous
A bill introduced in the Kansas House would recognize gold and silver specie as legal tender and repeal all taxes levied on it. The legislation would pave the way for Kansans to use gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for the people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.
The Federal Reserve is the engine that drives the most powerful government in the history of the world. Ron Paul popularized the slogan “End the Fed,” but Congress is nowhere near abolishing the central bank. It can’t even come up with the will to audit the Fed.
Even though state action can’t end the Fed, there are steps states can take that will undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money. By passing laws that encourage and incentivize the use of gold and silver in daily transactions by the general public, policy changes at the state level such as the Kansas Legal Tender Act has the potential to create a wide-reaching impact and set the foundation to nullify the Fed’s monopoly power over the monetary system.
A coalition of four Republicans introduced House Bill 2123 (HB2123) on Jan. 25. The legislation would make gold and silver legal tender in the state, recognizing it as a medium of exchange for the payment of debts and taxes. In effect, gold and silver specie would be treated as money, putting it on par with Federal Reserve notes in Kansas.
Under the proposed law, “Legal tender” means a recognized medium of exchange for the payment of debts and taxes. Specie legal tender would be defined as:
(a) Specie coin issued by the United States government at any time; or (b) any other specie that a court of competent jurisdiction, by final and unappealable order, rules to be within state authority to make or designate as legal tender
By allowing the court to designate additional specie to be used as legal tender, Kansas could free its citizens from potential supply constraints imposed by the use of only United States minted gold and silver coin. More importantly, the people of the state of Kansas would be able to define what specie is considered constitutional tender, further distancing themselves from potential control of their competing currency by Washington D.C.
Practically speaking, the passage of HB2123 would allow residents to use gold or silver coins to pay taxes and other debts owed to the state. In effect, it would put gold and silver on the same footing as Federal Reserve notes.
HB2123 would also repeal property and capital gains taxes on gold and silver.
“No specie or legal tender shall be characterized as personal property for taxation or regulatory purposes.”
Passage of this bill would build on a foundation set in 2019 when Kansas repealed the sales tax on gold and silver.
Kansas could become the fourth state to recognize gold and silver as legal tender. Utah led the way, reestablishing constitutional money in 2011. Wyoming and Oklahoma have since joined.
KNOCKING DOWN BARRIERS
Taxes on gold and silver erect barriers to using gold and silver as money by raising transaction costs. HB2123 would exempt gold and silver bullion from state capital gains taxes. Passage of this legislation would eliminate a barrier to investing in gold and silver. It would also make it more practical to gold and silver in everyday transactions, a foundational step for people to undermine the Federal Reserve’s monopoly on money.
In effect, states that collect taxes on purchases of precious metals act as if gold and silver aren’t money at all.”
Imagine if you asked a grocery clerk to break a $5 bill and he charged you a 35 cent tax. Silly, right? After all, you were only exchanging one form of money for another. But that’s essentially what South Carolina’s capital gains tax on gold and silver bullion does. By eliminating this tax on the exchange of gold and silver, South Carolina would treat specie as money instead of a commodity. This represents a small step toward reestablishing gold and silver as legal tender and breaking down the Fed’s monopoly on money.
“We ought not to tax money – and that’s a good idea. It makes no sense to tax money,” former U.S. Rep. Ron Paul said during testimony in support an Arizona bill that repealed capital gains taxes on gold and silver in that state. “Paper is not money, it’s fraud,” he continued.
LEGALIZING THE CONSTITUTION
Passage of HB2123 would effectively legalize the US Constitution in Kansas.
The United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.” Currently, all debts and taxes in South Carolina are either paid with Federal Reserve Notes (dollars) which were authorized as legal tender by Congress or with coins issued by the US Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.
The Federal Reserve destroys this constitutional monetary system by creating a monopoly based on its fiat currency. Without the backing of gold or silver, the central bank can easily create money out of thin air. This not only devalues your purchasing power over time; it also allows the federal government to borrow and spend far beyond what would be possible in a sound money system. Without the Fed, the US government wouldn’t be able to maintain all of its unconstitutional wars and programs.
Passage of HB2123 would reestablish gold and silver as legal tender in the state and take a step toward that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state.
It would also begin the process of abolishing the Federal Reserve system by attacking it from the bottom up – pulling the rug out from under it by working to make its functions irrelevant at the state and local levels, and setting the stage to undermine the Federal Reserve monopoly by introducing competition into the monetary system.
Constitutional tender expert Professor William Greene said when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve Notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.
“Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.”
Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state-by-state level is what will get us there.
So you would take $10 for a $10 bullion coin? That's some super genius stuff. Me being an idiot would want the gold value.
That sounds real exciting, overpaying your taxes for a whole year.
It plainly says, "make", NOT ANYTHING about "accepting". I see nothing which prevents states from accepting chickens for payment of taxes, if they so desired.
See what Webster says about the definition of each...
“So you would take $10 for a $10 bullion coin?”
If that $10 bullion were sliver and weighed 10 grams, sure. Today’s silver spot price is about $28. There are 28 grams to the ounce. 10 gram round, $10. It’s called “math”.
You also ignored this part of the Constitution: “and regulate the value thereof”.
Idiot.
L
Post the entire sentence.
“make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts”
It’s plain effing English. A State can’t make a chicken a tender in payment of a debt. Maybe they could make chicken tenders, but they can’t make one a tender.
Geez...
L
So the State of Kansas would have to hold a huge quantity of gold and silver coins that would have a highly fluctuating value. They would have to hedge that risk. But don’t let all that “math” confuse a genius with a plan.
I would like those ‘hot’ with extra blue cheese please.
Only two posts.
FReepers rock. Even old FReepers.
5.56mm
The referenced article seems to gloss over several unconstitutional things about the constitutionally undefined Federal Reserve and so-called federal banking regulations.
First, Thomas Jefferson had clarified that the delegates to the Constitutional Convention (Con-Con) had decided not to expressly constitutionally give Congress the specific power to regulate INTRAstate banking.
"It is known that the very power now proposed as a means was rejected as an end by the Convention which formed the Constitution. A proposition was made to them to authorize Congress to open canals, and an amendatory one to empower them to incorporate. But the whole was rejected, and one of the reasons for rejection urged in debate was, that then they would have a power to erect a bank, which would render the great cities, where there were prejudices and jealousies on the subject, adverse to the reception of the Constitution." —Thomas jefferson, Opinion on the Constitutionality of a National Bank, 1791.
Next, the delegates to the Constitutional Convention had given Congress the express constitutional power to regulate the value of money whether Congress wants that power or not.
"Article I, Section 8, Clause 5: To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof [emphasis added], and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;"
A related point concerning Congress's power to regulate value of money is this. Noting that ordinary legal voting citizens have aways had the specific power to elect representatives, when Congress unconstitutionally surrendered its power to regulate value of money to the constitutionally undefined, third party Federal Reserve, the following happened.
By doing so, Congress wrongly weakened the voting power of ordinary citizens to indirectly control value of money through their elected representatives.
Next, since Con-Con delegates were aware of problems with regulating the value of paper money, another significant observation about Clause 5 is that it expressly authorizes Congress to make only coin money since there is no mention of paper money in that clause.
"Article I, Section 8, Clause 5: To coin Money [emphasis added], regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures;"
”From the accepted doctrine that the United States is a government of delegated powers, it follows that those not expressly granted, or reasonably to be implied from such as are conferred, are reserved to the states, or to the people. To forestall any suggestion to the contrary, the Tenth Amendment was adopted. The same proposition, otherwise stated, is that powers not granted are prohibited [emphasis added].” —United States v. Butler, 1936.
But under the 10th Amendment (10A), the states could still use paper money as legal tender, right?
"10th Amendment: The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States [hint; emphasis added], are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
W R O N G !
Con-Con delegates had also included a constitutional provision prohibiting the states from making paper money regardless of their 10A powers.
"Article I, Section 10, Clause 1: No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts [emphases added]; pass any Bill of Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, or grant any Title of Nobility."
Corrections, insights welcome.
Poor Peter Schiff. His own son is a bitcoin convert, but he still keeps playing Don Quixote with his championing of gold. Does he really imagine people will transact in a modern and digital economy with gold and silver coinage?
I realize there are still goldbugs out there, but cryptocurrency has stolen their thunder and is far more realistic as the wave of the future. We share Schiff’s criticism of government-orchestrated, unbacked fiat money and how it empowers leftist totalitarian government. But in 2021 shiny rocks are not the answer.
I have to add something. If I go into an Infiniti
dealership, I can buy a vehicle with Bitcoin, gold or silver coins.
Or a bunch of Benjamins.
Fact.
5.56mm
When you try to point out why we are not going back to the way it was 100 years, the gold bug types just keep posting ridiculous noise. No rational serious responses. This thread has some fine examples.
:)
A State can’t make a chicken a tender in payment of a debt.
Exactly!
States CAN'T make (or force) their citizens to ACCEPT chickens as payment of debt. Only the federal government is allowed to do that - tho I believe we're well on our way of seeing chicken nuggets worth their weight in hundred dollar bills due to hyper-inflation.
Even so, neither states nor the federal government can prohibit individuals, businesses, local governments, or even state or federal agencies from ACCEPTING other things of value for services, or exchange of value, instead of money.
This is clearly a Tenth Amendment right:
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
The distinction that must be made is MAKE, as in force, vs what is ACCEPTABLE by both parties in a transaction.
And henceforth, if "chickens" are acceptable, then any form of valuable would likewise be so, including gold and silver bullion, or whatever both parties settle upon to settle their transaction.
Ta da...
Worst trade I've made is trading BTC for gold. Lol.
But I do believe in diversifying assets once one has enough assets necessary for basic survival and subsistence.
Preppers, once considered the bane of carefree happiness, is now an important person in some hard hit areas of this country.
Agree. It should be settled at current market value at the time of transaction, I would envision.
#53
The metal content of a US Dime (for example), is based on year. Pre-1965 US coins are about 90% silver. It's fairly easy to convert their value into Fed Notes, based on the coinage, quantity, year, and current spot silver price, at a point of sale or transaction.
Yes, by silver weight. A pre-1965 dime is of far more value than a 2021 dime because of its metallic composition.
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