A new bill, H.R. 2535: the American Liberty Coinage and Deficit Reduction Act of 2013, has just been introduced by Rep. Garland "Andy" Barr [R-KY6], a rare centrist Republican, according to Govtrack. This bill is potentially game-changing for economic status of the Republic. It could help re-establish monetary sovereignty.

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$5 Dollar U.S. Note by Wikipedia

 

A new bill, H.R. 2535: the American Liberty Coinage and Deficit Reduction Act of 2013, has just been introduced (June 27, 2013) by Rep. Garland "Andy" Barr [R-KY6], a rare centrist Republican, according to Govtrack (his ideology score is barely to the right of the Democrats).   This bill, which has a 27% chance of making it out of committee, but only a 4% chance of being enacted, according to Govtrack is potentially game-changing for the economic status of the Republic.  

Here is the full title:
"To cause increased seigniorage for the United States Mint leading to enhanced revenue to the Treasury and increased offsets to annual budget deficits in perpetuity, to require the Secretary of the Treasury to mint and issue coins commemorating and celebrating American Liberty, "The Union", and the American values and attributes of freedom, independence, civil governance, enlightenment, peace, strength, equality, democracy, and justice, to provide for the continued and concurrent production and distribution of existing presidentially-themed circulating and numismatic coinage designs, and for other purposes."

 

The reason this bill is so important has nothing to do with commemorations and celebrations of liberty, etc. though it would do all that, not symbolically, but in actual fact.   From section 2, paragraph 3 of this 15-page bill:

(3) During the 10 years of the 50 State Quarters Program, the cumulative production of quarter dollars exceeded 34,000,000,000, representing a 136 percent increase in quarter dollar production as compared to the cumulative 10-year period immediately preceding the program. This enhanced production level of quarter dollars resulted in increased seigniorage revenues of approximately $3,000,000,000 and, therefore, an equal reduction in the budget deficit.

Wikipedia defines seigniorage as "the difference between the value of money and the cost to produce and distribute it."

The bill states, in clear, unambiguous language, that if Congress passes this bill, it can directly create -- via Treasury, specified later in the bill -- coins valuing $3B "and, therefore, and equal reduction in the budget deficit."    Progressives may not agree with the deficit reduction emphasis of the bill, believing instead in the Keynesian idea of deficit-spending during times of economic contraction, but there is a an even larger issue at work here, whether Rep. Barr knows it or not.  

It is an issue of monetary sovereignty.  

What this bill would do, at least for coins, is firmly re-establish Congress' right, under Article 1,Section 8, Clause 5, to "coin Money" (case structure in the original document, and important, as we shall see later).   From the beginning of the Republic private banks have attempted, and often succeeded, in wresting this power from Congress by establishing private Central Banks such as the First (1791-1811) and Second (1817-1836) National Banks of the United States.   President Jackson, who loathed banks, desolved the Second National Bank in 1836, paid off the entire national debt for the first and last time, but did not avail himself of the Constitutional right to "coin Money," thereby plunging the United States into one of its deepest depressions in history, caused by deflation of the money supply.   It fell to his successor, president Martin Van Buren, to partly reverse Jackson's monetary policies and issue enough coinage to begin to lift the country out of its depression.   However, he only issued new money in species (gold), a compromise effort that finally created an independent Treasury in 1840, for a time, though the new money itself was not issued until 1843, 2 years after Van Buren had left office.

It fell to president Lincoln, acting under emergency conditions of the Civil War, when the North was nearly bankrupt, and the New York banks wanted 24-36% interest, to create truly sovereign paper money for the first, and so far, last, time, in the form of United States Notes.   This new and thus far, unique, form of debt-free legal tender money, constituted up to 40% of the currency ($450m) at a critical time in the Civil War when, as now, the banks private monopoly over money creation threatened to strangle the Republic.   The Supreme Court, in what came to be known as the Legal Tender cases, eventually concluded, in Julliard v. Greenman (8-1), that the federal government was authorized to create paper money as well as coins.   Although this ruling gave the right under the "borrowing clause," in fact the Greenback money was never repaid and was actually excluded from all Treasury Debt reports.   Greenbacks were officially withdrawn from circulation only in 1996, and remain our country's longest-lasting form of currency.   They can still be purchased as collector's items on eBay for approximately twice face value.

Getting back to bill HR2535.   Although this bill deals with coins only, and although it emphasizes deficit reduction, it clearly reestablishes Congress' option (some would say, duty) to "coin (create) Money" -- Money being capitalized to indicate ALL forms of money, not just physical coins.   If we can gain seigniorage from government coin creation, we can do so with government paper money creation - and have done so.  

Representative Barr, whatever progressives may disagree with him on other issues, should be supported in his efforts to introduce truly sovereign money in extended form.   The bill would establish newly designed coins in denominations from dimes to half dollars that would directly pump money into the starved real economy.   Though this bill is not as explicit as former Representative Dennis Kucinich's tabled bill HR 2990, which would have recreated United States Notes to replace all privately issued money, and issued it for direct payment for a wide range of government expenses from infrastructure to social security, it does open that possibility.   And it has a real chance, albeit small, of passing.  

You can become a citizen co-sponsor here: http://barr.house.gov/services/citizen-cosponsor.   Imagine if thousands of liberal to progressive co-sponsors signed on to support this Republican bill, along with the usual supporters from the Right.   And imagine if we got into a dialog with Representative Barr and informed him of the way to gain even more seigniorage benefit.   This would expand the monetary narrative well beyond the restrictive monopolistic Federal Reserve and might even lead to a reborn Greenback Party.   At the very least, we would finally have a truly bi-partisan opportunity to do what Jackson, Lincoln, Kennedy, all tried and failed to do, create Sovereign American Money.

Authors Website: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/

Authors Bio:

Scott Baker is a Managing Editor & The Economics Editor at Opednews, and a former blogger for Huffington Post, Daily Kos, and Global Economic Intersection.

His anthology of updated Opednews articles "America is Not Broke" was published by Tayen Lane Publishing (March, 2015) and may be found here:

http://www.americaisnotbroke.net/

Scott is a former and current President of Common Ground-NY (http://commongroundnyc.org/), a Geoist/Georgist activist group. He has written dozens of articles for Common Ground's national publication, GroundSwell, and has advocated for the Georgist Land Value Tax to public and political audiences.

A complete list of his publications can be found here:

Click Here

He is also New York State Coordinator and Senior Advisor for the Public Banking Institute

Click Here, which seeks to promote Public Banking. The PBI is chaired by another OEN blogger, Ellen Brown.
Scott has appeared on TV/Radio and in in-person Presentations to explain the principles of Georgism, Greenbacking, and State Banking. These may also be found on his personal blog: http://newthinking.blogspot.com/

Scott has a dozen progressive petitions on Change.org which may be found here:

http://chn.ge/10nUAmJ

Scott was an I.T. Manager for a major New York university for over two decades where he earned a Certificate for Frontline Leadership.

He had a video game published in Compute! Magazine: Click Here

Scott is a graduate and adjunct faculty of the Henry George School of Social Science in New York City.

Scott is a modern-day Renaissance Man with interests in economics, science and all future-forward topics.

He has been called an "adept syncretist" by Kirkus Discoveries for his novel, NeitherWorld - a two-volume opus blending Native American myth, archaeological detail, government conspiracy, with a sci-fi flair http://amzn.to/10nUoDV

Scott grew up in New York City and Pennsylvania. He graduated with honors and a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from Pennsylvania State University and was a member of the Psychology honor society PSI CHI.

Today he is an avid bicyclist and ride co-leader in a prominent bike advocacy organization.

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