E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
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:
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 with no balls (michelle obama and white house doctor)
5. Most incapable leader in the free world (democratic journal)
6. Pied Pieper of a band of idiots and trolls (msnbc, nbc, abc, cnn)
7. Welfare king (middles class tax payers)
8. Brain Dead ( C A T scan)
barak insane obama is your welfare momma, when his term is up please turn in your free phones and ebt cards and get back to work recess will officially be over
All this will mean is that something that cost you $3.62 will now cost you $3.65......they don't round down SUCKERS!!!!!
I have a better idea...Lets keep the penny and get rid of Obama....
Funny how the very same incomprehensible American idiots whining about the demise of the penny are the same ones crying over the end of Saturday mail delivery. Please share with the rest of us how your pathetic lives will be altered or changed one iota by either. List all the negative impact of losing the penny and one day without getting circulars and junk mail. Quit living in the 1930s. John Wayne is dead. There is no Santa Claus. Progress fools, progress.
Hey, when i order something from Amazon or Netflix, it sucks when I know if I don't get it Friday, I gotta wait till Monday to watch my DVDs or read comics.
Worthless Penny???
Obama's amateur economic policy will/is making the dollar worthless...
So all of you poor, elderly, and struggling working class, how do you like Obama making the dollar you spend even more worthless? And how do you like his energy policy of higher gas prices that cost more of your money at the pump? Huh? It's just like a tax on you, huh? Your wallets sure can't tell the difference between a tax and Obama's bad policies...
I bet you thought that Obama was for the poor, elderly and the struggling middle class.. That is just another Obama Lie.....
BTW, how do you like his unemployment rate which is worse now than when he took over and he even had total Democrat control of the congress for a good amount of time to pass Obamacare which the majority of Americans are rejection.....
Obama is the empty suit incompetent president for the ignorant voter....
You people are Classic.
All the penny is used for is a sales tool.
How many people never even use pennies ?
The only reason it works is people aren't very bright.
99 cents is better than a dollar
It should have been eliminated years ago.
Not only will you save a fortune in manufacturing costs.
If you round it up to the next nickle , even people on the strictest budgets will not be affected.
It would be a no lose situation.
The only reason you people chime in is Obama suggested it.
No wonder Congress has not passed a budget since 2009.
That is their job and they keep blaming it on Obama.
He can't sign a budget until he gets it in his hands.
I guarantee if they were not getting paid the budget would be passed tomorrow.
Just for you people that think 99 cents is better than a dollar.
According to the Constitution . The President submits a budget to Congress and Congress is required by LAW to pass the budget and submit it back to the President to sign.
it will work as long as big brother can figure how to get the overaage and the consumer eats the underage
We can save money by not making pennies. Since a lot of people now are using cards and phone to pay with, I thing we should go farther and stop making all but two coins and three bills.
Stop making pennies, coins and bills with a 5 on it.
All we need is the Dime and the Dollar coins, and $10, $20 and $100 bills. Do we not have a lot of Dollar coins already minted?
Say, if we are buying food at Wal-Mart, paying with a card or phone would have no effect, but paying with cash, only the last Dime would be rounded off.
Wal-Mart could offer to round down the last Dime as a sales gimmick.
If the President would offer this, it would give the right wing something to vote NO on, that save money.
So Obama wants to get rid of the penny, I can't wait for Sarah Palin and Michelle Bachmann Turner Overdrive to start handing out sacks of pennies to kids to protest it.
The one dollar bill also has an incredibly short lifespan. Seems logical to me to do away with the penny (useless/costly to keep), and replace the one dollar bill with a durable long-lasting one dollar coin, made of American steel or easily recyclable aluminum.
Ok, first when your talking rounding up or down, your talking total sale not each individual item. Sometimes that is the total sale, many times it is not. Much of the time I pay with my card , in which case there need be no rounding at all. Only for a cash sale would it matter. The silly thing is most people dont hold onto pennies. Only businesses need them to make correct change and then the customer throws them away.
You'd think the businesses would gladly round down the the nearest 5 cent mark just to avoid paying the credit card fees. Not sure why they already aren't doing that just so they don't have to handle the pennies.
Pharaoh ?uestionmrk is surly using up his koolaid points now?
I don't care who the president is. I think we need to get rid of the ding dong penny. It's all but worthless and it's a pain in the butt. Where is the Tea Party when you need it? The penny is a waste of the government's money and We the People's time.
Obama wants to kill Lincoln but yet he idolizes someone he can never even come close in greatness and wisdom. He shoud seriously think about doing this country a great service by leaving gracefully office before being impeached for having a fraudulent SS# and ID.
Lincoln died in 1865.
The same people that are blaming President Bush (who had a democratic Congress) for the economy and spending are now saying it is congresses fault....
You can not have both ways.....
What a waste of time reading here.
No-one is on topic
You have no RIGHT complaining about gridlock - YOU are doing it.
@$6.00/hr, That's 10c/min. cashiers get $12/hr, they cost 24$/hr. YOU are costing US 40cent every minute someone is searching for a penny. You are paying for it.
And for that person picking up those found pennies: please calculate how many pennies Your minute is worth, can that pay your chiropractor?
Disgusted
When it costs 2 cents to produce each penny and ship it to a bank, it is time to kill the penny. Sign my White House 'We the People' petition at wh.gov/oola
If we do away with the penny, how will banks pay us interest on our deposits?