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February 14, 2013

Obama suggests he’s open to getting rid of the penny


President Barack Obama says it may be time to get rid of the penny.
The copper 1-cent coin has long been criticized for being costlier to mint than it is worth. And with Americans using pennies less and less, some have questioned why the government hasn’t stopped producing them.
Asked whether the penny should be nixed during an online chat sponsored by Google, Obama bluntly admitted, “I don’t know.”
“It’s one of those things where I think people get attached emotionally to the way things have been,” the president said. “We remember our piggy banks and counting out all the pennies and then taking them and getting a dollar bill or a couple of dollars.”
Obama added that the penny is a “good metaphor” for the larger problems facing the federal government.
“This is not going to be a huge savings for government. But anytime we’re spending more money on something that people don’t actually use, that’s an example of something we should probably change,” Obama said. “One of the things that you see chronically in government is it’s very hard to get rid of things that don’t work so that we can then invest in the things that do.”
But, he acknowledged, getting rid of the penny is not one of his administration’s highest priorities.

12 comments:

  1. About the start of the article...we no longer produce "copper" pennies.

    The nickel will follow because soon it will be more valuable than a dollar bill...think about it, hold a brick of nickels in your right hand and a $100.00 bill in your left one...which one feels more like real money?

    This is Ponce

    V

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  2. The penny and the dollar are neck and neck for the race to extinction

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  3. The penny is not copper any more. Hasn't been for a long time.

    “This is not going to be a huge savings for government. But anytime we’re spending more money on something that people don’t actually use, that’s an example of something we should probably change,” Obama said. “One of the things that you see chronically in government is it’s very hard to get rid of things that don’t work so that we can then invest in the things that do.”

    The two party oligarchy isn't working my fellow Americans: I suggest we rid ourselves of it soon, and start electing 4 or 6 or 8 different parties with real "representatives" representing US.

    farang

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  4. ” Obama said. “One of the things that you see chronically in government is it’s very hard to get rid of things that don’t work so that we can then invest in the things that do.”

    So how do we get rid of the current president and all of congress and invest in something that works?

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  5. The penny has not been copper since mid 1982. The nickel being 75% copper and 25% nickel is the only real money in the land formerly known as America.

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  6. We just ended production of our lowly penny here in Canada. Personally could not have happened sooner.

    As far as what merchants are to do it's pretty easy to round up or down, and I am sure the federal government will spend millions on charts and cheat sheets so our local store owners can figure it out.

    Good riddance to useless spending, as in any household or business, any little savings will help in the long run

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  7. If they get rid of the penny, then when you buy something with cash, they will round up to the next nickle. This will force people to use debth cards. CASHLESS SOCITY, just what the people in charge want.

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  8. The disappearance of the basic currency unit - whether the penny or the euro-cent - is a clear signpost on the road to currency extinction.

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  9. It's another hidden tax on everything we buy and forces us to use debit/credit cards.....a cashless society....that they can turn on or off or take away from us remotely.

    1) The hidden tax - i.e. Milk, Gas 3.91....do you think all the stored will round down to 3.90.....no they will change their prices to 3.95 and thus we will all have to pay .04 cents more for the product.

    Do you think the IRS will round down....or allow each of us to round down...

    This rounding issues caused by the removal of the penny....is a hidden tax /inflation

    Rounding for merchants banks BIS is worth Billions daily.

    Think of the old Bank Software theft program....that simply takes all the accounts from a bank, and takes only the fraction of the pennies in the account balanaces and deposits the amount to a hidden account with a debit card. The programmer makes thousands monthly....just on the fraction of a penny.

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  10. WHAT will he get rid of Next? maybe you.. maybe me

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  11. It is fitting that talk of the penny going away one year before the dollar hits 1% (or one penny) of it's former value.

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  12. The real issue here: these small coins (in the hands and pockets of the general population) serve as the final brake on hyperinflation. I recall the same excuses for the elimination of silver coins in 1965 (it costs too much!!). Time to dust off the wheel barrows to go buy that loaf of bread!!!

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