What to do with 1 Billion Dollars that no one wants?

Did you know that the government has over 1 billion dollars that no one wants?  It’s true!

Okay, I heard about it on National Public Radio, NPR (June 28, 2011).  Our government apparently has been minting one dollar coins in honor of our presidents since 2007.  It’s supposed to be cheaper for the government since coins last longer than paper bills (30 years for coins compared to less than 4 years for paper).

But here’s the thing.  We Americans apparently don’t want dollar coins.  We don’t like them and won’t use them.  We prefer paper.  Three times, not once, not twice, but three times our government has tried to mint a dollar coin version of our greenbacks so as to reduce costs.  And still we refuse them.

But guess what?  Because of a 2005 law, the government cannot simply stop minting these coins.  They continue to be minted—until, I believe, all the presidents have been duly honored with their own coin, which will be completed somewhere around 2016.  So now we have over a billion dollars in dollar-coins wasting away in a government vault at a Federal Reserve Bank.  A billion dollars’ worth of coins that no one wants!  And, by the time all the presidents have been served with this honor, we may end up with 2 billion worth of these gold coins (yes, these coins are gold in color) wasting away in our vaults. 

So, assuming that it IS better to circulate these dollar gold coins and that it is not a government scheme to make more money at the taxpayer’s expense while avoiding accountability, here is my humble suggestion for a solution to this billion dollar waste of solid money:

First, Congress needs to do the simple and practical thing and modify the 2005 law or pass a new law that stops the ongoing required making of these unwanted coins.  That’s simple enough, isn’t it?

Second, how about using these coins as a means of paying off some foreign debt that we may have?  Ship them off as payment.  Hey, we’re talking about a billion dollars here, sitting around doing nothing.  They’re still good currency, are they not?  A dollar is a dollar, is it not?  Use them.

Third, we, the American taxpayer, need to put our money where our mouth is and use what we’ve got.  We claim that we want a leaner cheaper more economical government.  Well, if it’s cheaper to use dollar-coins than paper dollar-bills, let’s use them ourselves!  Go to your local bank and ask for dollar coins.  That’s a simple solution too, isn’t it?

Fourth, focus on the next generation and give them to our kids.  Make it cool for our kids to use them.  If kids grow up enjoying the handling, trading, changing and exchanging and swapping of dollar coins, they will grow into adults who will do the same.  Perhaps the government should hire the Disney Company to launch a super-ad campaign geared to children, selling the idea that’s it cool to save, spend, and circulate dollar coins.  That shouldn’t be too difficult to accomplish either, should it?

My point is that our government (Congress!) sometimes passes these ridiculous laws that end up wasting taxpayer’s money.  And, when congress realizes that it’s made an error (if it ever does admit it), it so often does little to modify or correct the mistake after the fact.  As if to say, “It’s too complicated; we have no idea even where to begin to resolve this problem that we’ve created.”   And so, bad, wasteful, and uneconomical laws stay on the books, continuing to waste taxpayer money.  In reality, it’s usually about politics, the one side trying to make the other side either fail and/or look bad.  But what do we Americans want?  Solutions!  That’s all we want, honest-to-goodness solutions.