Save The $1 Bill!

A Government Accountability Office report last week concluded that the American government could save $4.4 billion over 30 years by eliminating paper dollar bills and replacing them with coins. This study essentially repeats an analysis that was performed just last year and prompted a hearing from the House financial services committee, suggesting that committee chairman Spencer Bachus has a bee in his bonnet about ridding us of the greenback. And what red-blooded Alabama conservative wouldn’t want to cut government spending? Dollar-bill elimination also has a certain cachet among liberals, since emulating European practices often has prestige on the left. Meanwhile, media outlets that cover the issue tend to focus on it as a question of savings vs. convenience. Even skeptics like veteran budget wonk Stanley Collender say the problem is that actually eliminating the paper bills isn’t...