The Cypress Times 6/28/2011 WASHINGTON, D.C. - Today, U.S. Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Rand Paul (R-Kentucky) introduced the Sound Money Promotion Act, legislation that would remove the tax burden on gold and silver coins that have been declared legal tender by the federal government or state governments. On May 9th, the state of Utah became the first state to recognize such gold and silver coins as legal tender for use within the state, and similar legislation has been introduced in 12 other states, including South Carolina. “Thanks to the government’s reckless over-spending, continued bailouts, and the Federal Reserve’s easy money policy, this year the purchasing power of the dollar hit an all-time low in the several decades since we went off the gold standard,” said Senator DeMint. “In order to rebuild strength and confidence in our economy, we need both the fiscal discipline to cut wasteful spending and the monetary discipline to restrain further destructive monetizing of our debt. This legislation would encourage wider adoption of sound money measures, and that’s a step in the right direction.” Story Here I like the sound of this.
The question is exactly what does this mean? Exactly what tax burden are they talking about? Sales tax? Capital gains? And exactly how does that have any effect on the soundness of the money supply? Frankly it sounds like a piece of meaningless fluff. Maybe like "let's declare something legal tender that already is."
The bill, modeled after the Utah Bill, would remove taxes, including capital gains, sales and income taxes, on the coins. It only addresses gold and silver coins declared legal tender by the US government (for now). It's not meant to declare the coins as legal tender because they already are. It seeks to end the treatment of legal tender as a commodity such as wheat or pork bellies. I believe these legislators see the importance of an ultimate return to a gold and silver standard to restore a sound currency to the US. This bill is intended as a first step, not the endpoint. Read more here.
