Posted on 06/08/2004 1:23:27 PM PDT by ambrose
Posted on Tue, Jun. 08, 2004
Reagan supporters want to see their hero on U.S. money
JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Ronald Reagan's enthusiastic supporters say the late president deserves a place on the nation's currency, even if it means a lesser or disappearing role for Franklin D. Roosevelt, Alexander Hamilton or Andrew Jackson.
Getting their hero's face on the dime may be easier than other goals, such as seeing it etched on Mount Rushmore, but that idea still will be resisted by Democrats defending their own icon, FDR.
Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., a speechwriter in the Reagan White House, plans to introduce a bill to put Reagan on the $20 bill, replacing another venerable Democrat, Andrew Jackson.
That would join a previous proposal, by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., to provide for dimes bearing the likeness of Reagan.
The office of Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said he would pursue an idea he has pushed for several years, placing Reagan on the $10 bill now bearing the visage of Hamilton, the first Treasury secretary.
Chris Butler of the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project, which has the goal of seeing a Reagan commemoration in every American county, said its top legislative priority is the $10 bill. He noted that money can be changed administratively without congressional action, and suggested that Reagan dimes could join, rather than replace, FDR dimes.
The Treasury secretary can change the design of coins, usually after consulting Congress, but spokeswoman Anne Womack Kolton said, "We believe it is premature at this point to discuss any possible changes to the currency."
Replacing FDR would not happen without a battle. Last November, on the same day Souder introduced his Reagan dime bill "in honor of his work in restoring American greatness and bringing freedom to captive nations around the world," Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., proposed a resolution affirming support of the FDR dime. More than half the House Democrats joined him as co-sponsors.
Reagan's wife Nancy has also voiced opposition to the new dime. Souder last December praised the "humble nature" of Mrs. Reagan's comments but said he would continue to promote his bill, which has the support of GOP leaders, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert and Majority Leader Tom DeLay.
Butler, whose group is a wing of the conservative Americans for Tax Reform, pointed out that coins bearing the likeness of FDR, John F. Kennedy and Lincoln all appeared within a year of their deaths. The Roosevelt dime came out in 1946, in part commemorating his support for the March of Dimes campaign to fight polio.
Besides paper and metal, Reagan advocates have long pushed to see their champion honored more widely in stone. Butler said there are now some 54 highways, schools, post offices and other memorials to Reagan around the country, but that still pales in comparison with the more than 600 for Kennedy and more than 800 for Martin Luther King.
Up to now, the biggest victories have been the renaming of Washington's National Airport after the 40th president and the opening in Washington of the Ronald Reagan Building, the second largest government office building after the Pentagon. Last year the nuclear aircraft carrier USS Ronald Reagan was commissioned.
Still in the works is the idea of a monument to Reagan on the National Mall in Washington, deterred by a law - signed by Reagan - that bars new monuments until a person has been dead 25 years.
Then there is Mount Rushmore.
It will take a long time to study the geophysical and artistic feasibility of that project, Butler said. But "is he great enough to be on Mount Rushmore? Yes."
ON THE NET
Ronald Reagan Legacy Project: http://www.reaganlegacy.org/
They keep putting politically correct ladies on the dollar coin (remember the Susan B. Anthony?), and the gold color turns brown like a penny when they get much use.
IMO it is too early to consider this. Well, maybe not too early to consider but far too early to act upon it. His widow's grief is still raw and she opposes it. I am all for the idea of Reagan on currency but I feel that it is too soon. Out of respect for his wife I would say give it a while.
Kennedy died too late in '63 to get a coin for that year. He got it in '64.
My point is that neither of these men would have been so honored had we followed Goldwater's advice and waited 50 years to evaluate them and their legacies.
Hamilton, Madison and Jay wrote the Federalist Papers.
FDR should stay on the dime. I say ditch Andrew Jackson from the $20..
I was saying on another thread that the $20 bill is probably the most printed circulated and used bill there is at the moment.
In addition to new RR money, what would really tick off the RATS would be to start re-naming any Fed Building with 'Kennedy' to REAGAN. They'd go apoplectic! Teddy would croak right in the Senate, it'd be a thing of beauty :-)
And screw FDR & his stinking dime. FDR's policies were only worth ten cents anyway.
Don't bet on it. You're quite right about Kennedy but FDR was revered and is still invariably listed amongst the presidential greats. If anything, he would've gotten more than a dime if the 50 year tradition were reality.
Nancy opposed dumping FDR from the dime, not putting Reagan on any currency.
Trying to dump FDR is what is foolish, as it creates a divisive battle.
And the reason he would've gotten more than the dime is because in FDR's case you would've just had a half century of pent-up ferver to memorialize him burst free all at once in 1995...
Just when Gingrich and the Republicans had taken over both houses of Congress.
A vast number of memorializing endeavors have nothing at all to do with the U.S. Congress. As the article explicitly states, by example, coinage decisions are made by the Treasury Department and you can pretty much bank it that the Clinton Treasury would've had a coin out April 12, 1995. Moreover, the grounds of his Memorial would've likely been set aside for decades just waiting until something could be put on it - as (guess what) they in fact were in actuality..
My apologies then. I misunderstood and thought that Nancy was opposed to the Reagan dime.
Somebody made a good point about a $25 bill, seems like a reasonable idea to me, its about what it costs to fill the gas tank on my small pickup truck!
What party has the goods on money? It seems they`re all Democ-rats...I can think of only Lincoln off hand...Who else is a Republican on money? I think Lincoln is the only one, oh wait Grant, he`s on the 50 buck bill. Then you got the Indian chick and that Susan B.Sarandon coin...Man, Repubs need more money with them on it. Maybe they can put Reagan on that coin and lose the broad.
Put Reagan on the dime. To hell with what the 'rats think.
$20 dollar bill bump
BUMP!!!!
I would like to see Richard Nixon on some of our money as well. Seriously. Nixon should get the dime or the half-dollar. I'd like to see Reagan on the $20 bill and the dollar coin. Harry Truman should be on something too. How about the $5 bill? Got to throw the Democrats a bone here and Truman is the only Democrat president that doesn't make me want to puke. And what about Theodore Roosevelt? He was right up there with Reagan IMHO.
this is just crap. it's arguable that the constitution
would have never been ratified without hamilton's work
on the Federalist Papers. he was a confidante to George
Washington during both the revolution and during his
presidency. he was a key federalist, and was the father
of the central banking system. he is truly a giant in
american history.
Lincoln was never an independent. and jefferson's election
in 1800 may have well represented the birth of parties in
the young united states, but it certainly wasn't viewed as
such at the time. so jefferson was never a "democrat"
the way we use the term today.
I feel awful about Reagan, too, but let's not lose our minds
here.
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