Posted by AzBlueMeanie:
The Birthers-Birchers-Secessionists of our Tea-Publican controled legislature have a sad today. Apparently some things are just too crazy even for Governor Jan Brewer to sign off on. The Governor vetoed the paranoid end-times apocalyptic fantasies of Glenn Beck conspiracy theorists. Brewer vetoes bill making gold legal tender:
Those gold and silver coins will have to stay hidden in the closet and locked in safety-deposit boxes for a bit longer.
Gov. Jan Brewer on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have made gold and silver coins legal tender in Arizona.
“While I believe the concern over a devalued dollar as a
result of an unsustainable federal deficit is justified, I am unable to
support this legislation,” Brewer wrote in her veto letter. “The
provisions in this legislation need to be more carefully examined.”
Specifically, she wrote, it is unclear whether the
legislation would provide income-tax exemptions to transactions
involving gold and silver coins, giving certain businesses “an unfair
tax advantage.”
Senate Bill 1439 would have authorized the use of coins or
bullion containing gold or silver to pay a debt. The coins must have
been issued by the U.S. government or approved by a court, such as the
American eagle gold-bullion coin. But no person would have been required
to use or accept gold or silver as legal tender.
The bill mirrors legislation Utah passed in 2011 and was
part of a conservative movement arising out of a lack of confidence in
the Federal Reserve and a fear that paper money could become virtually
worthless as U.S. debt deflates the value of the dollar.
Opponents called the movement crazy, a waste of legislative time and
nearly impossible to implement. Utah still has no organized system for
spending and accepting gold and silver.
It is also unconstitutional and prohibited by law. Article I, Section 10 of the U.S. Constitution
explicitly forbids the states from issuing "bills of credit" (paper or
"fiat" money) or making anything but gold and silver coin legal
"tender." There is no corresponding explicit prohibition against the
federal government, nor any explicit authorization. Article I, Section 8
of the Constitution specifically gives Congress power to "borrow money"
and also power to "coin money and regulate the value" of both U.S. and
foreign coins. The federal government first issued paper money in 1861
in order to fund the Civil War by an act of Congress, the Legal Tender
Act of 1862. The Legal Tender Cases, Knox v. Lee and Parker v. Davis (1871), and Juilliard v. Greenman (1884), upheld the constituionality of the Act.
The U.S. took gold coins out of circulation in 1934 with the Gold Reserve Act. Richard Nixon took the U.S. off of the "gold standard" in 1971.