The Hill: "Congress needs to support the COINS Act"
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Congress needs to support the COINS Act
By Former Reps. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) and Tim Penny (D-Minn.), Opinion Contributors - 06/26/17 08:30 AM EDT
Congress and the new administration worked desperately to avoid a government shutdown during the first few months of this year. But the battle will likely return in the Fall, and then again in following years with each new budget. All this time eyes will be on Capitol Hill, as Congressional leaders search for budget cuts and common ground.
Let us offer a simple suggestion: what better place to start saving taxpayers’ money than by reforming our inefficient currency?
While currency reform may sound like a herculean task, it can be done easily and is long overdue. Rep. Claudia Tenney (R-N.Y.) and Bob Brady (D-Pa.) introduced legislation in the House – The Currency Optimization, Innovation, and National Savings (COINS) Act of 2017 – that encourages common-sense reforms that will save American taxpayers up to $16 billion without one budget cut or raised tax. Tenney and Brady are teaming up with Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, who together introduced the Senate version of the COINS Act.
The COINS Act (S.759) tackles three types of currency reform: suspending the penny, reducing the cost of the nickel and replacing the dollar bill with the dollar coin. These three actions alone would offer Congress – and the taxpayers they serve – more than $16 billion in savings. How do we know the savings will be that much? Two of Washington, D.C.’s leading authorities on the budget and fiscal policy – Aaron Klein, former Chief Economist for the Senate Banking Committee and Deputy Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Treasury, and G. William Hoagland, former Staff Director for Republicans on the Senate Budget Committee – recently released new research, “Currency Modernization: More to be Done,” underlining those savings.
The penny and nickel both currently cost more to produce than they are worth. Every time one of these coins is put into circulation, the taxpayer loses money-- already over $1 billion in the past decade. Pausing production of the penny alone would save taxpayers at least another $1 billion over the next decade.
But it’s not just the penny and nickel that have to be addressed; we’re also throwing away money by making the dollar note. The change in our dollar currency is long overdue, because the dollar note has outlived its usefulness in our economy. The U.S. is one of only three industrialized nations to still have a single denomination paper note. Most major economies in the world transitioned to a dollar coin years and even decades ago. Coins have a life span of 30 years or more, while the paper dollar has to be replaced every 2-3 years. Countries that have made the switch experienced significant savings for their governments in the process – in some cases, ten times the original estimate.
Congress’ own budget watchdog – the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office (GAO) – recognizes the many benefits of a dollar coin and has recommended switching to the dollar coin ten times over the last 24 years.
If the savings are so easily attainable, the question is why hasn’t Congress already taken advantage of these available savings? In part, it is because there is a misperception that the American people do not want a change in their currency. But this is contrary to years of public opinion polling. In fact, a poll conducted earlier this year shows voters agree 2:1 on modernizing one-dollar currency when they learn of the budget savings it will achieve.
And as an added bonus, it is a bipartisan agreement. Republicans (74 percent), Democrats (68 percent), and Independents (65 percent) see common ground when it comes to replacing the dollar bill with the dollar coin when informed of the savings from making the switch.
With the budget under pressure due to rising demands and limited resources, finding taxpayer savings should be one of Congress’ top priorities. Congress has known the cost savings of modernizing to a dollar coin for years and ignored the facts. It would be irresponsible to throw billions in taxpayer savings down the drain while dollar bills are still ending up in landfills after being in circulation for only a year or two. Congress needs to support the COINS Act and make these sensible changes to our currency.
Kolbe served in Congress from 1985-2007. Penny served from 1983-1995.
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/economy-budget/339431-congress-needs-to-support-the-coins-act
Comments
Tim Penny (D-Minn.) - all for suspending the penny.
Made me laugh out loud.
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
Joe Buck is probably in support of eliminating the paper dollar too, but being a sports announcer, he won't be very instrumental in this effort.
You can find links to the house and senate bills in this thread:
115th Congress - House Bill 2299 and Senate Bill 759...
He may just want all the Penny jokes to stop
Was the ANA involved in things like this 100 years ago?
I know the ANA used to be very involved with Congress and the Mint, but they decreased their activities in these areas after moving West to Colorado. It's a shame because it's a part of the ANA that I found very interesting and valuable.
I wonder if the ANA could open up an East Coast / DC branch or if another organization could do this.
We've been saying this for more than a decade. Kill the penny and paper dollar. The Mint has so many dollar coins in storage it had to pay for construction of a new building simply to house and guard them. What a waste.
Lance.
Common sense eventually floats to the surface, if you wait long enough.
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
It's a waste but I am hoping the dollar coins in storage today tone wildly like the Morgan dollars in the 19th century. Seems like things don't change that much over the years, but the waste on those ended and it's time for this to end as well.
Cent...
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
Bring back fractional currency !!!!
It would be irresponsible to throw billions in taxpayer savings down the drain while dollar bills are still ending up in landfills after being in circulation for only a year or two. Congress needs to support the COINS Act and make these sensible changes to our currency.
It' way too late for this. We've already spent countless billions defending a crazy status quo. As long as we're obviously going bankrupt anyway we might as well have familiar pocket change as we stand in the soup lines. The old copper pennies might be worth a little crust of bread to have with our soup.
The Texas Congressional delegation will not support closing the BEP plant in Fort Worth. For all their complaining about Federal spending, they love the money and jobs.
We could just give each employee a million dollar severance pay and still come out way ahead. Hell, think like a congresscritter and give them each a billion dollars; it's just taxpayer money anyway.
Suspending production of the cent seems reasonable at least on a trial basis that should extend at least two fiscal years.
As for change at the soup kitchens... No fear... They will accept bank card du jour or some other types of cool trending and in vogue financial instruments featured in the New Order of a cashless society... Won't they??
And we can look forward to hearing "Brother Can You Spare A Dime" by Bing Crosby followed by Rudy Vallee's Victor recording of "Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries"
Experience the World through Numismatics...it's more than you can imagine.
I suppose the important thing is to Always Look on the Bright Side of Life.
...Even while our future is being thrown away a penny, a nickel, or a billion dollars at a time.
Big zinc will never allow it. They all want to fill their pockets as much as possible until the inevitable "fully-digital" currency is established
Apropos of nothing in particular everyone knows Al Gore has a zinc mine on the property he inherited from his father and that zinc mining and zinc smelting are dirty operations. Many people don't know that zinc is fatal to mammals under 15 lbs (like babies) and large amounts of the new pollutant called "CO2" is produced in its manufacture. Indeed you can think of pennies as little manifestations of waste and unnecessary CO2 production.
The important thing is a few get rich and they have a lobby.
Why would Ft. Worth close? Even if they eliminate the $1 FRN, the BEP would still want two printing facilities.
If you look at the senate and the house bills, they are very close in wording. I could see this happening within the current administration.
You know, a billion here and a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking real savings...
LOL...The government just loves to debate.
It certainly makes sense to eliminate the cent and dollar bill.... which is why I fear for the success of this endeavor. Congress has a poor record when it comes to sensible legislation. Cheers, RickO
Capacity of the Washington DC plant nominally exceeds demand for $5 - $100 currency, plus other engraved paper needs of the government. Supporters of Crane Paper Co. would also not be pleased.
As in nearly everything, industry has the flexibility to protect itself by lobbying and promoting its products, whereas the mass of people who would benefit have no such influence. Arguably, the elected Representatives and Senators would do that job, but they do not have the resources (or often the interest) to do so. Consider, as one of many absurd examples, the "palladium bullion coin" pork approved by Congress: no public benefit whatsoever; but plenty of private benefit for the only mine owner in the USA.
Regardless of how much DC produces, I'm sure BEP wants two facilities. If one should go down for some reason (terrorism, natural disasters, etc.) there needs to be a second printing facility.
Actually, I was expecting the elimination of the $1 FRN after Ed Kennedy died. He was the real champion of Crane's. I was surprised when it wasn't.
There is no such thing as the government saving the people money. Even if this were to be done, then billions would be spent studying the dirt composition in relation to the lifestyle of the red-tipped salamander.
Leave the money alone !
The Fort Worth plant was authorized because there was no expansion space in Washington, and it was an opportunity to exchange favors with the large Texas delegation. Having a "backup facility" was not the issue, and is not an issue today.
As for the "studying dirt" comment -- common dirt is the source of more than half of all antibiotics, including a new class recently discovered while "studying dirt." The new antibiotic destroys nearly all the ones that have become resistant to extant drugs. But, maybe the money saved from eliminating the $1 bill can be put toward better education of a rational, logical-thinking, creative population -- one that honors facts and truth.
I sat in Robert Leuver's office when he was the director of the BEP, talking to him about the proposal to build a second facility. This would have been sometime after the 1982 crash of Flight 90 into the Potomac River at the 14th Street Bridge, which is located just north the BEP facility in Washington. Leuver specifically noted that there was a lot of concern about the dangers of having the nation's entire paper money production housed within one building that was within a heavily traveled flight path from a major airport. Political considerations were undoubtedly in play for the secondary site selection, but publicly, BEP officials in the 1980s voiced concerns about the potential for significant disruption to the nation's currency system in case of a major disaster to the D.C. site.
William T. Gibbs