Writes Ylan Q. Mui in the business pages of The Washington
Post,
Virginia Del. Robert G. Marshall fears that a financial
apocalypse is coming and only one thing can save the Commonwealth: its own
currency.
The idea that Virginia should consider issuing its own money
was dismissed as just another quixotic quest by one of the most conservative
members of the state legislature when Marshall introduced it three years ago.
But it has since gained traction not only in Virginia, but
also in states across the country as Americans have grown increasingly
suspicious of the institutions entrusted with safeguarding the economy. . . . [T]he
fact that the debate is happening at all reflects a deep-seated distrust in the
very foundation of the country’s economic system — the dollar.
No, no, no.
The fact that it is taking place at all is symptomatic of the
state legislature of Virginia being populated with so many of the disgraceful jackasses
who nowadays fill the Republican Party.
And that Mui wrote such nonsense is proof of how far the Washington
Post has been taken over by the same sort of Republican jackass.
Interestingly, the US constitution empowers the US congress to coin money and forbids the states to do that or to make anything but gold or silver coin a legal tender.
The Constitution thus does not contemplate the federal government issuing paper money and cannot honestly be said to empower it to do so.
Likewise, it forbids the states to issue paper money, paper being undoubtedly something other than gold or silver coin.
On the other hand, it appears not to forbid either the federal government or the states to allow foreign coinage as legal tender.
Still, only conservatives at least moderately crazy want to ignore all this and have states issue their own currencies.
And only conservatives who are completely crazy want the federal government to give up paper money.
Anyway, so far as I know.
Still, it would be nice to pass one or two amendments authorizing the federal government to issue paper money, reminding the states they have no power to issue any form of currency at all, and denying the states any power to decide what shall or shall not be legal tender.
The endless claims of nearly all our judges, politicians, pundits, and activists to honor, uphold, and obey the constitution would then be a little less of an endless, unfunny mockery.
Interestingly, the US constitution empowers the US congress to coin money and forbids the states to do that or to make anything but gold or silver coin a legal tender.
The Constitution thus does not contemplate the federal government issuing paper money and cannot honestly be said to empower it to do so.
Likewise, it forbids the states to issue paper money, paper being undoubtedly something other than gold or silver coin.
On the other hand, it appears not to forbid either the federal government or the states to allow foreign coinage as legal tender.
Still, only conservatives at least moderately crazy want to ignore all this and have states issue their own currencies.
And only conservatives who are completely crazy want the federal government to give up paper money.
Anyway, so far as I know.
Still, it would be nice to pass one or two amendments authorizing the federal government to issue paper money, reminding the states they have no power to issue any form of currency at all, and denying the states any power to decide what shall or shall not be legal tender.
The endless claims of nearly all our judges, politicians, pundits, and activists to honor, uphold, and obey the constitution would then be a little less of an endless, unfunny mockery.
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