South Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts (R.) wants to ban the buck. He has introduced legislation to require the use of gold and silver coins as the legal tender of the state as opposed to federal currency. For those passing through the state, you may want to wait before you exchange your dollars for bags of gold and silver coins.
Pitts introduced the bill as a way to stop the government from continuing to print money to pay for its increasing budgets: “if the federal government continues to spend money at the rate it’s spending money, and if it continues to print money at the rate it’s printing money, our economic system is going to collapse.”
The only problem is that it violates federal law establishing the federal currency as the official legal tender. Before the ratification of the Constitution created a strong central government, seven of the 13 states issued their own paper money — causing enormous economic problems as the money was often worth little. James Madison complained that “In the internal administration of the States, a violation of contracts had become familiar, in the form of depreciated paper made a legal tender . . .”
Some communities are already printing their own money, here.
Pitts in not alone. Various countries like China are alarmed by our runaway spending and printing of new money, here. It is part of the reason that China is unloading our bonds and few countries seem to want to buy U.S. bonds, here.
This type of legislation is ridiculous but the Democrats and the Obama Administration have continued the spending pattern of George Bush which could be ruinous for our economy. They have lifted the debt ceiling to a record level and continued to allow spending to spiral out of control (while gushing money in the two wars). This is a serious problem that is not addressed through graffiti-like legislation.
For the story, click here.
I have just talked to Senator Bill Nelson from Florida about this and he might be in favor. We,the American people are wasting a lot of money if fact,MILLIONS printing one dollar bills that only last 9 months. We should slowly stop this waste,because the new gold coins are sitting in banks all over this country and not being used.
Norm
I have always wonder why the mint produces so many one dollar coins if no one wants them,but the coin collectors. There are presently over three billion of these coins sitting in bank vaults. If we stopped printing dollar bills we would have to use coins.
The government could save millions in printing cost by useing coin instead of paper bills that last less than one year.
I have talked to my congress men about this and all I get is double talk. When are we going to wake up and start saving money.
Naive Republicans fell for the trap – mike gunter
Trap? Let me see if I have this straight.
Republicans whine for a months that they want to sit down with the President, ON camera, and debate health care.
He obliges them and invites them to do so.
😐
How does that constitute a “trap”?
Wow. Corrupt politics.
Shoved down our throats.
Where were you for the past 8 years during the Bush rule?
Open wide: ObamaCare is about to be shoved down your throat.
As the dust settles after the seven-hour Obama talk-a-thon called the health care summit, it is obvious that Obama never intended to actually listen, or consider compromise despite America’s desire for just that.
Americans don’t like ObamaCare for simple reasons. It doesn’t treat Americans equally. Because of the special deal for Louisiana, the $600 million hospital in Connecticut and the Medicare Advantage protections for some Florida seniors while it is cut for others is unequal treatment, and it is wrong.
America is broke and cannot afford another trillion dollars in new entitlement spending. It will destroy your freedom to determine your own health care and treatments.
Within minutes of the summit, Politico reported, “Democrats plan to begin making the case next week for a massive, Democrats-only health care plan…A Democratic official said the six-hour summit was expected to ‘give a face to gridlock, in the form of House and Senate Republicans.’ Democrats plan to begin hear, and perhaps legislative, steps toward the Democrats-only, or reconciliation, process early next week, the strategists said.”
Senators call reconciliation the nuclear option. Rush Limbaugh says it’s “a suicide pact.” The traditions of the United States Senate will end with this tyrannical manipulation of Senate rules un-witnessed previously in American history.
Why call it a “suicide pact?” Simply put, the American people have overwhelmingly said “no” to ObamaCare, and Democrats don’t care. They’re sneaking around behind closed doors, cutting deals, breaking the rules, threatening legislative trickery and making a mockery of our legislative process and traditions, and they don’t care.
And yes, the fix is already in. In the coming days, Nancy Pelosi will attempt to pass Harry Reid’s Senate version of ObamaCare in the House of Representatives and she’ll overcome liberal objections to the Senate version of ObamaCare by promising her fellow liberals that those objections will be resolved when the Senate amends ObamaCare through legislative reconciliation a process that will take a filibuster off the table.
ObamaCare being passed could end political careers and the Democrat party’s majority in Congress, and they still don’t care.
Why don’t they care? They don’t care because Obama, Pelosi and Reid are hard-core ideologues on a personal mission to transform the United States into a socialist country and they’re not going to let anything including the American people stand in their way.
Obama believes in the nanny-state. He actually believes that the United States would be a much better place if he simply had the power to tell you what to do, how much of your money you can keep, where you can live, where you can work, where your children can go to school. In short, he wants control over every aspect of your life.
And, as with his effective takeover of the banks and the auto industry and his plans to institute so-called Cap-and-Trade legislation, ObamaCare is a pivotal aspect of their plan to achieve that goal. If they can tell you and your family what kind of health care you are allowed to receive, whether you live or die, Obama, Pelosi and Reid have won a major battle in their quest to control you.
The Obama strategy is clear. The summit was, as Dick Morris told us, “designed to fail” … it was nothing more than a ruse and a stall.
Calling the summit gave Obama and Pelosi and Reid time to plot the resurrection of ObamaCare behind the scenes and it gave Obama a weak and pathetic excuse to paint Republicans as “obstructionists” and “justify” what was coming the whole time, an attempt to steam-roller Republican objections through legislative shenanigans and shove ObamaCare down our throats.
Naive Republicans fell for the trap. Desperate to avoid the accusation that they were “obstructionist,” they gave Barack Obama all the ammunition he needed to do just that. And to make matters worse, they are totally oblivious to the fact that the American people desperately want them to obstruct ObamaCare.
That’s why we can’t wait for our political leaders to draw a line in the sand. They’re so out of touch, they simply won’t do what needs to be done. That’s why it’s up to us, the American people, to win this battle. If the tide is to be turned, it will come as a result of unprecedented action by citizens demanding members of Congress listen.
ObamaCare stinks of corrupt politics, which Americans hate. The fix is in, but if America’s citizenry roars loud enough, the tide can be turned.
Puzzling:
I think you are correct on the local government pensions. Someone is going to be in deep kim chee.
Byron,
Thank you for the kind comments. I wish I had more time to engage with the community on blogs like this one, as I enjoy it. I will say that I make a point to read your thoughts whenever you jump in. I will try to speak out more on these economic issues as they arise.
I am pleased to see JT start to address a few more financial topics that I think will ultimately have deep significance.
If people understood that government’s ability to execute undeclared, illegal “wars” was rooted in its power to create money from nowhere to pay for these wars, perhaps they would be more skeptical about the power of such a tool. Would we have such a massive military industrial complex (and an endless appetite for war) if people actually had to pay for it? Our current system not only allows government to go to war to be paid by future generations through massive debt and inflation, but to purchase votes and create massive entitlement dependencies without ever paying for those either. Some programs are just outright Ponzi schemes at their core, like Social Security.
If I had to give JT a new legal/economic issue to put on his radar screen in 2010, I would suggest watching for challenges to the ability of cities (or even states) to file bankruptcy, default on municipal obligations, and rework public sector pension contracts. A first wave of these is coming that will set many precedents. I suspect that the courts will ultimately decide whether or not taxpayers can be coerced to support legacy government contracts. If these contracts are not changed soon either the government or the taxpayer will be bankrupted. This isn’t a decade away, it is likely less than two years away in many states. It will be massive in its implications for the role of government.
I would love to see this in SC. Mike Pitts is a genius and so is Dr. Edwin Vieira(he wrote the bill. The state does have the constituional authority according to Dr. Vieira. If you haven;t read his book, Pieces of Eight, you should.
This republican wants to replace the dollar and one in Utah wants to eliminate 12th grade. I have got to find out what drugs these guys are taking.
Puzzling:
you are damned brilliant and correct as usual. You don’t say much but you speak volumes in a couple of sentences.
I wish you would expand on your thoughts so people can truly see what you are saying. Your comment on money above has a good many economic implications. Could you expand on them for the others here that seem to think this is a “kooky” idea?
Personally, if I were a business person, I couldn’t wait to move into (or stay in) a state where I have to have two kinds of currency on hand, that won’t add expense or complicate things at all.
Are we all entirely sure that we shouldn’t offer South Carolina an opportunity to secede?
No, now that I’m thinking about it, an independent, self-governed SC, free from outside influence would rapidly become the east coast’s Albania. No, that’s not right – failed state, smuggling, piracy and religious-fanatic warlords – ah! SC would be come the East Coast’s Somalia!
Molly Ivins once wrote that the state government of Texas was America’s Research and Development Lab for bad government. (This was around the time that GWB was transferring that “technology” to Washington.) I think that SC may be giving Texas a run for that title!
But seriously, what is the @*&!ing deal with South Carolina? Exactly what kind of crazy is in their water supply?
this is the best news i have heard since i started revolting against obamacare after i read hr 3200. if south carolina passes this bill….they have a new citizen! they are smart to protect themselves from a total collapse!
What is wrong with having competing currencies? Including private ones?
Perhaps people would hold currencies that they trusted the most. In our current system the government continues to steal value from those who have saved by inflating the money supply. As a result people have to chase speculative returns.
Wait wait wait, Headline stoppers it was FDR that took us off of the Gold Standard in 1933. It was still “backing the buck” But in 1971 by Executive Order Nixon took the US off of any metal based currency.
It is conceivable that Obama could put us back on a metal based currency by EO. However, during a time of war it is not reasonably prudent. As this was one step in the Cold War against Russia. They had or have more gold in deposit than the US ever thought of.
The guy does make some sense.