Cents-less

Currently, the cost it takes to produce one penny (1.26 cents) is greater than the value of that penny. Same thing for nickels (7.7 cents). But Congress is acting! The House unanimously passed H.R. 5512, the Coin Modernization and Taxpayer Savings Act, on Thursday. (I had two friends--one liberal, one conservative--who said that if they agreed on something, they must be right. Expand this to 435 friends and you can see how right this bill is.) The bill would require pennies and nickels to be primarily made of steel and is estimated to save $1 billion over the next decade.

But the Bush administration is balking at the bill, mostly because it doesn't like Congress telling any twig on the Executive Branch what to do. Never mind that the Constitution says, "The Congress shall have Power...To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix the Standard of Weights and Measures."

So President Bush doesn't like this bill, even though it clearly has wide popularity and makes good business sense, because he doesn't like being told what to do. Now I understand why the oil companies in which he had major stakes in the 80's failed miserably.