18 February 2010

Bill to Ban US Currency in South Carolina from SCNow

OK.  So this one is not about Texas.

COLUMBIA—State Rep. Mike Pitts has introduced a bill that would require South Carolina to abandon U.S. currency as legal tender.
“The bill basically gives the state the ability to honor gold and silver coinage,” said Pitts, a Republican from Laurens.
“It also gives the state the ability to say we won’t use legal printed tender as currency within the state,” he said.
“I don’t want to go as far as to say it’s laughable,” said Dr. Neal Thigpen, a longtime political analyst and former chair of the political science department at Francis Marion University.
“With all the difficulties that this state is facing, for the General Assembly to take up that kind of proposed legislation, I would just view it as a complete waste of time,” said Thigpen.
Pitts says he’s introducing the bill in order to make a statement about state’s rights.
“The Federal Government has consistently eroded the 9th and 10th Amendments, the sovereignty of the state and the state’s rights, using the Interstate Commerce Act and a variety of regulations,” said Pitts.
He says he would love to see a debate in the Supreme Court about the state’s right to govern itself.
Pitts also says there are other lawmakers who would support the bill.
“If public pressure is out there for other legislators to join this bill then that constituency will make their voice heard and those legislators will become sponsors of the bill,” he said.
However, Thigpen is skeptical and said he believes lawmakers will be cool to the idea.
“Now maybe they won’t belittle it, because the guy is a colleague,” he said, “but I’d be surprised if practically anybody signs on with him on it.”
Pitts does concede it’s unlikely the bill will ever pass.
“I think it has a very slim margin to pass. I don’t think there’s intestinal fortitude in the General Assembly to test constitutionality on any issue,” Pitts said.
He says if the Federal Government continues to spend at the current rate, there’s a chance the U.S. economy could collapse and printed money would become worthless.
He says gold and silver would always have value.
Pitts says the idea isn’t so crazy, because many people thought it wasn’t possible for the Soviet Union to collapse 20 years ago.“I just think that if that’s the most pressing problem that the state of South Carolina faces, then things must be a heck of a lot better out there than I think,” said Thigpen.




Pitts Introduces Bill to Ban US Currency in State SCNow

1 comment:

Counterlight said...

Even after Andrew Jackson (another Southerner) stared them down in the Nullification Crisis, and after Abe Lincoln and General Sherman whupped their asses in 1865, some people never learn.

I'd say give 'em back to the British, but I doubt the Brits would want them.

I heard some historian the other day describe the South as a place where people remember everything and learn nothing.