Posted on 10/27/2011 8:25:04 AM PDT by Responsibility2nd
The deficit-cutting super committee may try to scrap the greenback, in the hopes that Americans will finally embrace the little-loved dollar coin
Americans have pointedly rejected $1 coins for decades, but that was when they could pay with a greenback instead. Now a new proposal to phase out the dollar bill in favor of a new $1 coin is afoot. The congressional "super committee" charged with slashing the deficit says that such a move would save the government about $5.6 billion over 30 years, citing a Government Accountability Office estimate. Is it really time to kill the bill? Here's what you should know:
How would switching to coins save money? It would actually cost more money at first: It costs about 15 cents to mint a $1 coin, versus 3 cents to print a bill. But since coins last at least 30 years — roughly ten times the lifespan of a bill — the government would have to spend a lot less money replacing currency over the long haul.
Would $5.6 billion really make such a big difference? The super committee is struggling to cut $1.5 trillion, so yes, $5.6 billion would only be a small slice of the pie. But "you're not going to find that kind of savings that involves no tax increase and no cut to anybody's program," says former Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.), a longtime coin advocate. It's a no-brainer, says the Wisconsin State Journal in an editorial. "If our dysfunctional Congress can't do something this easy to save money, how will it ever tackle our nation's soaring budget deficits and federal debt?"
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
Who wants to save the greenback?
Who wants to rid us of the $1 bill?
Would Americans finally accept a $1 coin?
Are there other proposals?
While the idea has merit, watch the other hand!
They could save billions by eliminating the penny..but that’s waaaay too easy, too obvious..
What a joke. 5.6 billion over 30 years.
How bout defunding the EPA, DOE, Dept of education and others to save much more this year?
Cure for someone’s headache: Stomp on their foot so they forget how much their head hurts!
Is a comprehensive overhaul of welfare and medicaid, section 8 housing, WIC and any other form of ‘charity’ on the ‘to do’ list with a higher priority rating than this? How about foreign aid? Why not stop funding our enemies?
This super congress is turning into the super stupid committee.
Bloated entitlements, social programs and useless government departments are costing us TRILLIONS each year and TENS OF TRILLIONS over ten years and they are worried about THIS? Sure, lets bail out the sinking ship with a thimble.
During my lifetime the Treasury and Federal Reserve have wiped out about 85% of the value of a dollar. Even if you ignore the Eisenhower dollars which were available back then (I don't know how common they were in general usage), the current dollar is worth well less than the quarter was back then. If you only go back to the the failed attempt at the Susan B. Anthony dollar in 1979, it's value has dropped by nearly 70%.
Dump the penny, dump the dollar bill, bring on the dollar coin.
Hell, they’ll spend $5.6 billion fighting over it.
We could stop funding crap like high speed rail and put that money back into highways where it belongs.
I dunno. What does the environmental impact study say? That’s the only way I can decide on such earth-shakingly important issues.
If “coin vs paper” kept up with the continuing decline of the dollar, our smallest bill would be the $50 bill now.
Don’t believe me? A silver dollar (which is also our smallest paper denomination) is now worth about $30.
As a compromise, I would accept them doing away with all bills below the $20 bill. And forget just dumping the penny. The smallest coin should be the quarter.
If this all happened, people would get a feel for just how much value our money has really lost over the last few decades.
Well, as long as they don’t touch the really important stuff like Cowboy Poetry. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-bloggers/2686376/posts
I seem to remember they tried this once before and it didn't work. Instead of Susan B. Anthony dollar maybe they can mint a Moochelle dollar. They will need a lot of metal to make 14 trillion of those babies.
This is what the unconstitutional “Super Committee” is wasting their time on? $185 million/year “savings” when we are spending over $4 billion EVERY SINGLE DAY.
Did anyone expect anything else? The RATs don’t want to cut anything, so that the military gets gutted.
I have had this idea for YEARS. Here is my plan.
1. Eliminate the penny.
a. makes room for the dollar coin in the cash drawer.
2. Eliminate the 1 dollar bill
a. makes room for the 2 dollar bill in the cash drawer.
3. Print 2 dollar bills instead of 1 dollar bills.
a. Been to a “Dollar Store” lately? Does anything still cost only a dollar?
Flood the marketplace with $1 coins and $2 bills, so that they will be as common as the new quarters. That way it will reduce or eliminate hoarding by collectors. There will no longer be anything rare about them.
I understand that there are tons of dollar coins already minted because people just refuse to use them. This will continue until the paper dollar bill is eliminated.
Pennies are a joke. I throw them away. Stores should just round up or down to a nickle. It would average out. Pennies are a nuisance. Time for them to GO.
The only way any country has ever gotten their people to switch is to force the issue. From the user (that’s us) perspective paper money is superior. Lighter, flexible, sortable. There’s a reason society moved AWAY from metal money to paper, and that reason will fight any attempt to get people to regress.
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