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President Barack Obama finally broke his silence on an issue of national importance Friday – he thinks it’s time to retire the penny.
The possible extinction of the one-cent coin was a featured economic question in a Google+ Hangout with the Commander in Chief last week as John Green, the co-creator of a popular YouTube channel, applied a little presidential peer pressure.
“Australia, Canada, New Zealand, many other countries have gotten rid of their pennies,” Green said. “Why haven’t we done it?”
“I gotta tell you, John, I don’t know,” Obama responded, adding, “Anytime we’re spending money on something people don’t actually use, that’s an example of things we should probably change.”
RELATED: Conservative thinkers: GOP should cut 'stale' policies loose
But why should anyone care? They’re pennies. Aren’t there more valuable things to worry about?
First, pennies actually cost more to make than they’re worth. In 2012, every penny cost 2.41 cents to make – more than twice their face value.
And as zinc and copper – materials used in minting the penny – have become costlier due, in part, to manufacturing shifts in China, which are likely to raise costs further.
Granted, the total cost of minting pennies was only $58 million last year – less than one-tenth of a percent of total federal spending in 2012 – but groups like Citizens to Retire the U.S. Penny have long been making the economic case for getting rid of the penny (plus, the group adds, fishing for pennies adds about 2 seconds to each cash transaction per day).
And the U.S. military has already decided they’re essentially useless; all Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores on bases round all cash purchases up or down to the nearest nickel.
With both parties looking for ways to cut government spending, it seems as though cutting penny production could be a relatively painless, if insignificant, place to start. But in the Google+ Hangout, Obama ceded that Washington has bigger fiscal fish to fry.
“The penny is an example of something that I need legislation for,” he said. “And, frankly, given all of the big issues that we have to deal with day-in/day-out, a lot of times it just doesn't -- you know, we're not able to get to it.”
There have actually been efforts to pass penny-banning legislation. Back in 2001, then-Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-AZ) introduced the “Legal Tender Modernization Act,” which would have made pennies obsolete by requiring retailers to round up or down to the nearest nickel on cash purchases.
That bill failed, and Kolbe’s second attempt in 2006, the “Currency Overhaul for an Industrious Nation (COIN) Act,” after zinc costs nearly doubled, met a similar fate.
But the president doesn’t need Congress to explore other, cheaper alternatives to zinc – the main metal in pennies. In fact, the administration’s 2013 budget encourages the Treasury to “explore, analyze, and approve new, less-expensive metals for all circulating coins like aluminum, iron and lead.”
It wouldn’t be the first time Abe Lincoln’s coin got a makeover. Back in 1982, the penny changed from 95 percent copper and 5 percent zinc to 97.5 percent zinc and 2.5 percent copper.
(And lest so-called “penny hoarders” try to melt that valuable pre-1982 copper down, the Mint in 2006 prohibited the melting of pennies and nickels. It also made it a crime to carry more than $5 in one and five-cent coins out of the country).
Changes to the composition of pennies do have Congressional champions: Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers (R) introduced the “Cents and Sensibility Act” in December 2011, which would mandate that pennies were out of American steel (much of which comes from the Buckeye State) and dipped in copper.
But these efforts will be met with some serious resistance from the zinc lobby (yes, there is one). The company Jarden Zinc, which creates “metal and zinc coinage,” according to its website, paid lobbyist Mark Weller $340,000 in 2012 to discuss issues related to “minting/money/gold standard” with members of Congress and the Mint, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
Weller also represents the pro-penny group Americans for Common Cents, whose website warns of the risk of inflation that eliminating the penny would bring, and whose headquarters are on K Street, known for its many D.C. lobbyist offices.
“Americans for Common Cents aims to inform and educate policymakers, consumers, and the media about the penny’s economic, cultural, and historical significance,” the group’s website reads.
The political power of the penny is likely another reason Obama hasn’t acted on getting rid of it. As far back as 2008, when he was still a candidate, the “penny lobby” appeared to mystify Obama.
Asked about it at a town hall in Pennsylvania, he said, “We have been trying to eliminate the penny for quite some time -- it always comes back,” joking, “I need to find out who is lobbying to keep the penny.”
This story was originally published on Tue Feb 19, 2013 2:51 PM EST
Leave a Comment:
Just wait for 2014 and by then hyperinflation should hit. We can git rid of ALL the coins and round to the nearist dollar, heck maybe to the nearest 100 dollar bill. I got me wheelbarrow ready to tote me money. LOL!
Because inflation is a new thing? I pretty sure since the U.S. came off the gold standard there has been steady inflation.
Andy me Lad, we ain't seen hyperinflation yet. Bound to hit soon.
You mean like the civil war that was supposed to happen if Obama got a second term?
There will be no Civil war. Obama's government has purchased over a billion hollow point bullets. Enough to kill you, your family and every American many times over. Obama is just another Idi Amin!
Over a billion bullets, that's interesting. Please let me know where I can find the reciept, I would love to see some proof.
This is an MSN link (very liberal)
http://news.msn.com/politics/homeland-security-wants-bullets-16-billion-of-them
And I meant to say 1.6 billion.
At a minimum this is a huge waste of taxpayer dollars!
This will not be good. Wait for the problems if this actually goes through.
You do realise this isn't Obamas idea, right?
First kill the penny then the dollar then the rest of America. People keep blaming the Congress well if memory serves me correct the Congress has been sending budgets and bills to the Democrat control Senate in which the A##hole ried sits on them never sending them to the floor to get voted on. When Obamass and the Demos had complete control his first 2 years less got done then now. You can blame the Repubs all you want but it has been the Democrats that have killed this nation since GW Bush last 2 years of office when Nancy Peehole and her group got control. But hey you cant expect a liberal to face acts or the truth something they havent told since Jimmy ( I'll just print more money) Carter
You do realise we have had a budget every year, right?
Andrew, the Democrat controlled Senate has failed to produce a budget since Ob took office. You must be an Obamabot troll right?
Why don't you post a link to this supposed budget?
The fact is Democrats don;t think they need a budget since they are such a bunch of tards!
The fact that you don't think there has been a budget shows how uninformed you are. Look it up and quit listening to Fux "news".
Actually I found the information on the following site :
http://budget.senate.gov/republican/public/index.cfm/budget-background?ID=b630d3bd-f985-4943-a87a-a746ecec6a51
I am sure you will agree the US senate budget website is authoritative. So stop listening to ABC and CNN!
Wow...something I can actually agree with Odumbo on...he'll just go about it differently than I would. First he'll appoint a worthless Czar of pennies who will accomplish little more than adding red tape to a process that was probably running smoothly without it, then get the shell Fed to buy billions more in debt with money we don't have...then if nobody else agrees with him...I know, what are the odds...he can simply ignore the wishes of his employers and executive order his way to a penniless society...somehow adding more debt as he works his magic. But then we're still stuck with him and that moron Clown VP...and that just sucks.
So the fact that Obama has raised spending less then any President since Eisenhower means nothing to you? We had a surplus under Clinton, where did that go?
Are you kidding, this clown can eliminate the dollar, or your whole paycheck. But you bird brains voted him in.
Quite a convincing argument you presented. lol
So, please tell me how much different your pay check is and exactly where the differences are? Please say 2% for SS so I can inform you that Congress and the GOP raised that.
Woody, many Americans especially the poor who just had their taxes raised 5% and gas prices tripled are not as wealthy ad 1%ers such as yourself and cannot afford the loss of even $50 a week from their checks. It mush be nice to have millions of dollars a month in income and not worry about 5% of your income lost, but to those on low incomes that can mean the difference between eating and not eating!
5%, what the hell are you talking about? Low income get's the best tax bracket and as far as I know it was 2% for SS put into the deal by Congress and the GOP.
I live in California, so more tax increases here.
That said even in states like Texas
2% SS payroll tax increase and a 0.9% payroll tax increase for ObamaCare.
There are a host of other increases aimed at small businesses but 3% of an average middle class income of $50,000 is still $120 a month less in household budgets already bursting at the seams!
I changed name from mofopan to my real name -my wife hates me writting in the beginning I thought I could make some cash out of some of my ideas-this has proven fruitless and so now she's upset
you could use sound from above to squash the waves in the middle of the ocean by using low thuds above the ocean
my option lets drag them to mars increase the gravitational pull on mars so an atmosphere starts to form then use the star wars project to use a beam to heat up the metal the cool it and it should expand and contract at a rapid rate causing suction of oxygen into the atmosphere and if we reverse engineer earth while developing mars we have to planets and a lot less of a population problem and over extension of crop areas under drought
not sure why we can't build reservoirs and drain them into the area while fish farming in them
let some water out of the dams to only a bout a third and it will rejuvenate the drought lands and then we can refill the dams by replicating the water cycle by producing percipition
the first part was meant to read that the coins cause extra gravitational pull due too the weight of the metal which can cause implosions of gas pockets in the earths crust causing earthquakes and tidal waves that's where the sound waves come in-get rid of pennies and nickels and lets make a a planet
Great, I hate the penny, kill the thing. But wait, Obama supports this. And anything Obama does is bad for the US. So killing the penny must be wrong. But penny is so useless, it needs to die. But Obama supports that so it's a bad idea. But .. but ... but .. ahhh, my head hurts!
Exactly right, if the head line read Boehner wants to get rid of penny none of these Obama haters would have a problem with the idea.
Woody, we don;t want to get rid of the penny since it represents Obama in SO many ways. We just want to make it economical to produce so a plastic likeness of Obama would be suitable and make real cents for real change!
Kill the penny like he's killed the economy. Nothing new here.
Stock Market, Up.
Housing, UP.
Unemployment, Down.
What part of the economy is Obama killing?
Try the 3 million plus less FULL time workers in the US over the last 4 years and the lowest worker participation rate.
And who laid them off? Obama or the greedy CEOs to protect profits? I maen if you got laid off that would be Obamas fault right and you wouldn't file for unemployment because you are opposed to it, right?
@Andrew...
The following are 24 stats that show just how much Obama has royally messed up our economy….
#1 Under Bill Clinton, the average unemployment rate was 5.2 percent. Under George W. Bush, the average unemployment rate was 5.3 percent. Under Barack Obama, things have been much worse. The month after he took office the unemployment rate rose above 8 percent and it has stayed there ever since.
#2 Under Barack Obama, the velocity of money (a very important indicator of economic health) has plunged to a post-World War II low.
#3 Real median household income has decreased by more than 4000 dollars since Barack Obama entered the White House.
#4 The United States has plenty of oil and we should not have to import it from the Middle East. Unfortunately, Barack Obama has an absolutely nightmarish energy policy. Under Bill Clinton, the number of drilling permits approved rose by 58 percent. Under George W. Bush, the number of drilling permits approved rose by 116 percent. Under Barack Obama, the number of drilling permits approved decreased by 36 percent.
#5 When Barack Obama took office, the average price of a gallon of gasoline was $1.85. Today, the average price of a gallon of gasoline is $3.71.
#6 Under Barack Obama, the United States has lost more than 300,000 education jobs.
#7 Since Barack Obama became president, the number of long-term unemployed Americans has risen from 2.7 million to 5.2 million.
#8 For the first time in the post-World War II era, the employment-population ratio has not bounced back after a recession. The percentage of working age Americans with a job has been below 59 percent for 35 months in a row.
#9 While Barack Obama has been president, U.S. home values have fallen by another 12 percent.
#10 More than three times as many new homes were sold in the United States in 2005 as will be sold in 2012.
#11 Electricity bills in the United States have risen faster than the overall rate of inflation for five years in a row. Thanks Obama.
#12 When Barack Obama first entered the White House, an ounce of gold was going for about $850. Today, the price of gold is over $1630 an ounce.
#13 Since 2008, our economy has lost 1.3 million jobs while at the same time 3.6 million more Americans have been added to Social Security’s disability insurance program.
#14 The number of Americans on food stamps has grown from 31.9 million when Barack Obama took office to 46.4 milliontoday. How much more “hope and change” are we going to be able to endure?
#15 As I wrote about the other day, it is being projected that Obamacare will add 16 million more Americans to the Medicaid rolls.
#16 If you can believe it (and this really is hard to believe), more than half of all Americans are now at least partially financially dependent on the government.
#17 The total amount of money that the federal government gives directly to the American people has grown by 32 percentsince Barack Obama became president.
#18 Under Barack Obama, federal spending as a percentage of GDP (25 percent) is the highest that it has been since World War II.
#19 The Obama administration has been spending money on some of the most insane things imaginable. For example, in 2011 the Obama administration spent $592,527 on a study that sought to figure out once and for all why chimpanzees throw poop.
#20 The U.S. government has run a budget deficit of well over a trillion dollars every single year under Barack Obama.
#21 Under Barack Obama, U.S. debt was downgraded from AAA status for the first time ever.
#22 Since Barack Obama took office, the U.S. national debt has increased by 50 percent.
#23 Since Barack Obama became president, the U.S. national debt has increased by an average of more than $64,000 per taxpayer.
#24 During the Obama administration, the U.S. national debt has grown more than it did from the time that George Washington became president to the beginning of Bill Clinton’s second term as president.
over 40,000 people a day added to food stamp program and enough small businesses lost each month to equal a GM loss a MONTH.
The stock market is up because ALL of the money the FED is printing is heading straight there and no where else.
1. Unemployment reached its highest under Bush and has had a steady decline over all since Obama has taken office.
2. What the hell is the velocity of money?
3. You're full of crap.
4.Drilling permits that aren't being used are taken and given to those who will use them. Since Obama has been in office oil production in the U.S, has risen by 24%.
5.Check gas prices in historical reference. Gas reached $4.18 under Bush and the $1.85 was in fact do to the fact that U.S. trucking was on the verge of collapse. Did you forget about that?
6.You're full of crap.
7.Unemployment is the direct result of CEO's laying people off before they took a pay cut themselves. Unemployment was heading for record numbers under Bush and no President highers workers, Private Industry does.
8.59% really, come on even you don't believe that, do you?
9.I follow home prices daily and invest. You are so wrong I don't know where to start.
10. Again, I don't know where to start.
11. Not in my area.
12.Check the curve. It is consistent with Bushes Presidency and beside that no President controls the price of a world commodity. Supply and demand baby.
13. So Obama is the reason people are disabled?
14.Most of those are disabled single men and they receive very little but need it.
15.So.
16. You mean teachers and Service men and elderly on SS? Those are a factor Obama doesn't control. Which ones are Obamas fault?
17. Wrong.
18. Obama has raised spending less then any President since Eisenhower.
19. Because Obama has the ability to spend money to find out ehy monkeys trow poop. Get a clue.
20.You mean when he put the Bush wars on the books?
21.Due to the fact that Congress wouldn't raise the debt limit. Obama is not the only representative in D.C..
22. Wrong.
23. Wrong.
24.Right, because that even sounds possible. If it was, where was Congress?
@Andrew....remove that blindfold......
Andrew where do you get this nonsense. Unemployment is down because many long term unemployed were able to con the disability folks or have simply given up.
The total unemployment in the US measured like it was before Obama is around 17% and that does not include underemployed people in which case 30% is a closer number.
Face it your messiah is a wolf in sheep's clothing. BTW why does he continue to authorize drone executions of young Americans?
Well the marxist dictator has already killed American jobs and the economy, why not continue his serial killing ways.
Please, please, please tell me how an American President ELECTED is a Marxist Dictator.
Andrew... remember that fable from childhood?
Limbaugh loves me. This I know. Cause the Bible tells me so.
See? That explains everything the
rightwrong believe. lolAhhh, Limbaugh. The hypocrite who damns those who are just like him, drug addicts. He who is with out sin smoke the first stone.
Obama was not elected. He was a fraud and the election fraud he used to get "elected" is just starting to come to light starting with the black chick who voted for him SIX times!!!!
Worse he has used federal funds to relocate millions of minorities to areas where their vote would distort the actual will of the people.
Face it Obama is not even an American. He was raised an Indonesian and hates America! This is why he so badly wants to destroy it. Regrettably there are many here who apparently also hate America such as yourself and hence along with a massive dose of election fraud here we have him as president!
GHX, quit smoking crack, it is @!$%#ing up your head.
By the end of Obama's second term, we won't need money.....the whole country will be on food stamps.
You just took stupid to a whole new level.
How much less do you make since Obama has been elected?
@Andrew....unlike the fake "compassionate" liberals, I think it is a travesty that such a large percentage of our country remains unemployed and such a large percentage is new to food stamps and/or welfare under Obama.....do you think this is a good thing????
Andrew DOES think more Americans on food stamps is a good thing. He clearly hates America like Obama does and feels Americans deserve everything he is doing to them!
GHX, again, quit smoking crack, it is @!$%#ing up your head.
Andrew come on we are all grown ups here... No insults just facts and trivial conversation OK?
Finally, a plan from the Dem-A-Rats that will save the taxpayers money, $2.41 per penny, I'm no mathematician but then again I don't need to be to see the problem here.
Enough drops in the bucket and the bucket is full. What cut fills the bucket by itself?
doesn't everybody just LOVE listening to stupid teabagger dum@!$%#s. There are just so MANY of them
There really aren't that many of them, the are just loud and obnoxious.
It's like Jerry Falwell claiming there was a moral majority... there was neither.
Reverse the debasement of our currency and the penny will be worth keeping.
Getting rid of the penny just means everything will cost more, as much as 500% more for a 1 cent item or as little as 1% more for a 99 cent item. No one will notice a price increase of that magnitude. It only amounts to billions of dollars over the entire economy. A few billion here, a few billion there, doesn't mean much when the dollar has been so debased that it only buys 4 cents worth of goods priced in 1960 dollars. That's right, a dollar today buys 25 times less than a dollar bought in 1960. The government has stolen the dollar's value through inflationary policies. The government has robbed those on fixed incomes, robbed anyone with savings. So now they are finally wanting to just throw money (the penny) away. Shame on them.
Ben Franklin said that a penny saved was a penny earned. Money had value then. Today the mantra is spend it quick before it is worth even less.
So America would be wise to borrow now and pay later as the money is worth less later?
America would be wise to kill ALL welfare programs and stop borrowing before it is too late!
It is already too late. $16 trillion dollars. That's $186,046.51 for each American worker, on top of all the private debt that worker has incurred, another $11 trillion. There's no way it all can be paid off. We're insolvent as a nation. Done. Finished. We might as well throw away the penny, and the nickel, dime, and quarter too. Hell, a dollar is only worth 4 cents in constant 1960 money, so we might as well get rid of the dollar too. Let the $20 be the smallest unit of currency. We're all headed the way of Weimar Germany or Zimbabwe anyhow. Soon we'll have to tote our money in wheelbarrows simply to buy a loaf of bread.
Remember this, only government can debase a nation's currency.
When they asked Mitt Romney he didn't know what a penny was.
That's not true. Penny was his secretary that paid more in taxes than he did.
And he claims to be such a fan of Abe.
Who's on the $5.00 again?
I hate coins and paper money. We should just have our money be on cards. I'd rather throw our coins if I get any and I hate paper money because you always end up with coins. I love my debit card. I love to use online ways of paying or by phone payments. I hate checks also. Just visa cards work for me and all things should be payable online and by the phone.
Why bother with pennies when BO has racked up over 6 MILLION DOLLARS in TAXPAYER FUNDED vacations in just 3 months?
I can imagine what the total tally will be by the time this last term of his MERCIFULLY ENDS.
what is the difference between barak insane obama your welfare momma and a huge hairy turd ?
obama your welfare momma has no nuts otherwise they are identical !!!
what is the difference between barak insane obama your welfare momma and michelle obama ?
michelle has a much larger penis and is a wee bit less arrogant, key word is wee bit !!!!!
sorry if I offended any huge hairy turds as comparing anything or anyone to that sheetbag is insulting.
Very strong argument for voting Rebub in 2014. lol
OK... I have decided to come clean. I voted for Obama twice even though God told me that he was a socialist, communist, Kenyan Muslim who would drive the racist, evangelical, holier than thou crowd to the point of insanity.
God was right. Love it!! <sarc off>
Obama, Obama, Obama......................who gives a duck?
Evidently you do... or else you wouldn't be @!$%#ting your shorts.
if no has figured it out by now oneofthesane is obama your welfare momma's personal prostitute and arse wiper extroidinair, its goal is to become a piece of corn in obama your welfare momma's poop
Can we retire HIM instead?
key facts about obama your welfare momma and the source
1. Biggest idiot since jimmy carter (encyclopedia britannica)
2. Most racits moron on the planet (ebony magazine)
3. Most arrogant arse in the world (his mother)
4.Smallest penis since andrew woody (michelle obama and andrew woody)
5. Most incapable leader in the free world (dembocratic journal)
6. Pied Pieper of a band of idiots and trolls (msnbc, nbc, abc, cnn)
7. Welfare king (middles class tax payers)
Hard to argue with such infallible logic as you have just presented. lol
word up
I see no logical reason to keep the penny. The best reason people have is "it's always been there dangit, it would be weird seeing it go."
Which frankly -- to me -- seems like a pretty bad reason to spend $56 billion in taxpayer dollars.
We could also save a lot of money by replacing dollar bills with dollar coins. One dollar bills cost more than a dollar to produce, and wear out quickly and need to be replaced. Coins last much longer.
Again, there are no logical arguments. Just people who don't want things to change, no matter how much money the government could save.
.
To me, this is indicative of the real problem. Everybody agrees that the government is overspending, but nobody wants anything to be cut except the things they never liked in the first place. Republicans want to cut social programs, democrats want to cut military spending. And don't kid yourself, they both want to raise taxes.
go back on the gold and silver standard and revalue the dollar. Copper pennies will make cents again (Pa-pa-Pun, intended)