South Carolina Lawmaker Seeks to Ban Federal Currency Posted by Brian Montopoli
South
Carolina Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced legislation that would
mandate that gold and silver coins replace federal currency
as legal tender in his state.
As the Palmetto Scoop first reported, Pitts, a Republican,
introduced legislation this month banning "the unconstitutional
substitution of Federal Reserve Notes for silver and gold
coin" in South Carolina.
In an interview, Pitts told Hotsheet that he believes that
"if the federal government continues to spend money at
the rate it's spending money, and if it continues to print
money at the rate it's printing money, our economic system
is going to collapse."
"The Germans felt their system wouldn't collapse, but
it took a wheelbarrow of money to buy a loaf of bread in the
1930s," he said. "The Soviet Union didn't think
their system would collapse, but it did. Ours is capable of
collapsing also."
The lawmaker believes that a shift to an economy based on
gold and silver coins would give the state a "base of
currency" should that collapse come. As one expert told
the Scoop, however, his bill would likely be ruled unconstitutional
because it "violates a perfectly legal and Constitutional
federal law, enacted pursuant to the Commerce Clause of the
U.S. Constitution, that federal reserve notes are legal tender
for all debts public and private."
In addition, since gold and silver regularly fluctuate in
value, they could not easily function as stable currency.
But Pitts maintains that his state is better off with something
he can hold in his hand and barter with as opposed to federal
currency, which he described to the Scoop as "paper with
ink on it." He says he resents what he considers the
federal government's intrusions on states' rights.
Though he did not offer a timeframe, Pitts told Hotsheet
that he anticipates a nationwide economic collapse "if
our federal government continues the course it's been traveling
under the previous administration and this administration."