This is just weird:
Over at TPM, Ryan Reilly has an intriguing post about the interest of some tea partiers for a new circulating dollar coin because it supposedly will save the federal government money. This follows a story in the Huffington Post from a week ago about how Rep. David Schweikert (R-AZ) introduced a bill that would eliminate the dollar bill and substitute dollar coins.
Here’s some very personal and U.S. history about the dollar coin and why this is a terrible idea that is really nothing more than a corporate subsidy.
***In theory, a dollar coin absolutely saves taxpayers money compared to a dollar bill. When the golden dollar was released in early 2000, it cost the government about 12 cents to make and it was expected to last about 30 years before it had to be removed from circulation because of normal wear. Each dollar bill cost much less — about 4 cents — but most bills only remain in circulation for a short time because they deteriorate so quickly. That means that the savings over 30 years are significant: it cost 12 cents to have a dollar coin but 80 cents to have a dollar bill. So from a budget perspective, changing to a dollar coin makes a great deal of sense and having a bill instead could be included in the waste-fraud-and-abuse category that most taxpayers demand be cut.
But…and it’s a big but…rather than save money, a dollar coin actually costs the government and taxpayers a great deal if it’s not going to be used. The government will still have to manufacture bills to meet the demand and mint coins that few will ever use to meet the legislative mandate. Pure and simple…creating a new dollar coin will be the equivalent of building a new highway right next to one that already exists and is working just fine.
Read the whole piece. Personally, I just don’t understand some of the things that motivate these folks. As James Joyner notes, the only way to handle the transition effectively would be to ban paper dollars after a set period, forcing everyone to make the transition. But if the mint even though about that, we’d have another group of teahadists screaming about punishing job creators and the heavy hand of government. We’d spend months with irate elderly scooter drivers attending rallies with George Washington’s face super-imposed on tread on me flags.
Besides, who wants to walk around with pockets weighed down with dollar coins? When I lived in Germany, all I did with the damned mark pieces was throw them into a jar and then very now and then exchange them for paper.