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Cheaper Money
October 4, 2010 - by Donny Shaw
In the final days of the pre-election congressional session, the combination of everybody in Congress wanting to do something to boost the economy while at the same time being unwilling to go near anything that would add to the deficit led to some creative legislating.
You’ve probably heard about the bill that the House passed last week (H.R.2378) to put tariffs on Chinese imports in order to pressure them into letting their currency appreciate. Well, on the same day they voted on that bill, they passed something else designed to help the economy that has gotten less attention. That bill, the “Coin Modernization, Oversight, and Continuity Act of 2010,” is aimed at giving the Treasury Department authority to take a look at an obscure issue in our monetary system, the fact that it’s costing the government these days nearly 2 cents to make a penny and nearly 10 cents to make a nickel.
The bill calls on the Treasury to conduct research into new, less expensive materials that could be used for producing coins, and to report their findings to Congress within 2 years. The bill specifically states that, “to the greatest extent possible, [the Secretary of the Treasury] may not include any recommendation for new specifications for producing a circulating coin that would require any significant change to coin-accepting and coin-handling equipment.” That language has caused the only really relevant industry here, vending machines, to give the bill their full endorsement.
The bill would still have to be passed by the Senate in the lame-duck session if it is to become law.
According to Dan Tangherlini, the Treasury Department’s chief financial officer, “making coins from more cost-effective materials could save more than $100 million a year.” To put that in context, we have been spending about $1.8 billion on national defense per day in 2010. That’s almost 2,000 times more each day than we would be saving over the course of an entire year by making coins cheaper. Not that we shouldn’t do it, just saying… a better reason might be that millions of people are allergic to nickel (the most commonly used metal in coins) and get itchy rashes when they touch change for too long.
Penny pic from Dystopos used under a CC license.
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OPENCONGRESS MODERATOERS PLEASE
3706 is suffering from a troll attack there is a individual with multiple accounts that is filtering lots of comments for no reason the user is more then likely Sher1.
She destroyed 1699 the other unemployment extension bill thread, in that thread she filtered the comments of everyone except someone she didn’t like to make it look as though that individual was responsible.
1699 was a long standing thread with 50,000 comments it was destroyed by troll attacks in a matter of days, she is now doing the same thing to 3706
Please fix this
Where do you find these past threads for 3706 and 1699?
That was me you lame!
All of you Connecticut 99’ers better make sure that Linda McMahon does not win the Senate seat. Keep in mind that if she was in office, the days of minimum wage may be history. Also, while she was the CEO of her gigantic corporate enterprise, she let 10% of her workforce go stand on the unemployment line, while she still took home 46 million dollars in the two years prior… You mean to tell me she couldn’t cut 5 maybe 8 million dollars and save those folks’ job? I call that G-R-E-E-D-Y. We won’t see a Tier V if these Republicans get into office. They want to do away with any and everything that the government sponsors, So no Tier V if Linda emerges a victor….Remember in November…
PLEASE may I ask, let us put parties aside. This is the first time in 27 years that I have not had a job & I have applied from everything from a janitor to my field in Sales & Marketing. There is no job that is below me.I WANT A JOB! However, I have 2 more unemploymen checks remaining & this is a must! I beg all of you to quit looking at party lines.I am talking about a LIFE LINE! I have used all of my 401K, as well as, almost all of our retirement. I am shouting from the mountain top-THIS IS NEEDED. There are always a few bad apples, so I am sure there may be some that are setting back & taking it easy. I believe the majority, like myself are hard working Americans that would pay to have a job! So I am asking Republicans, Democrats, Liberials: PLEASE PASS THIS BILL. I REITRATE THIS AGAIN-THIS IS A LIFE LINE! WHAT IS 20 WEEKS COMPARED TO ALL THE $ THAT HAS ALREADY BEEN GIVEN OUT! My electric is going to be shut off if I cannot come up with $554. DO YOU SEE-NEXT US NY MTG.PLEASE LISTEN!