The earlier version was proposed in 2011 by former Rep. Ron Paul. It died when the 112th Congress adjourned. Congressman Paul C. Broun hopes that the 113th Congress will see in better light this newest bill and another first authored by Paul who recently retired.
"I applaud Congressman Paul’s efforts. He was fighting for liberty," Broun told The Hill in regards to his other reintroduced bill that Ron Paul first penned to audit the Federal Reserve. "I’m just going to stand on his shoulders and go forward in that same fight."
Rep. Broun introduced this latest bill, numbered H.R. 77 and entitled the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2013, when the House convened for its first session in the 113th Congress on Jan. 3, 2013.
If the Free Competition in Currency Act became law, it would:
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Repeal Section 5103 of title 31 that states: "United States coins and currency (including Federal Reserve notes and circulating notes of Federal Reserve Banks and national banks) are legal tender for all debts, public charges, taxes, and dues. Foreign gold or silver coins are not legal tender for debts."
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Eliminate taxes on coins, medals or tokens made from gold, silver, platinum, palladium or rhodium — no matter the source, whether issued by a State, the United States, a foreign government or any other person. Such measures would take effect on December 31, 2013, but would not apply to earlier taxes or fees imposed.
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Strike Title 18, sections 486 and 489, which relates to uttering coins of gold, silver or other metal and making or possessing likeness of coins. This would end a prohibition on the operation of private mints and stop current legal proceedings against them. Additionally, any previous convictions suffered as a result of the prohibition would be deemed null and void.
Currently, the Free Competition in Currency Act of 2013 has no cosponsors. The legislation is before the Committee on Financial Services and the Committees on Ways and Means. For a bill to become law, it must pass in the Senate, the House and get signed by the President.
No co-sponsors? Makes me wonder where the free market cheerleaders have gone. Afraid of the potential competition? On a more serious note though, even the Federal government could get in on this act by issuing non-denominated or competitively denominated silver and gold coins. Using prior currency terms, silver coins (denominated as “eagles”) could be issued in 1/8, 1/4, 1/2, and 1 ounce coins and gold coins (denominated as “unions”) could be issued in the same sizes and allowed to circulate at whatever value the market would dictate in comparison to dollars. If anything, it would create an incentive for the… Read more »
Like the FED would ever allow the end of legal tender laws. No one would use their paper garbage ever again. Nice dream though!
Are you kidding? This would mean getting rid of the penny and the $1 bill. Two things Congress is loathe to touch with a 10′ pole. Paul Broun is wasting everybody’s time and money by continuing to reenter this frivolous nonsensical bill.
Ron Paul was pictured on one of the Liberty dollar coins that are now outlawed as counterfeits. I notice in the bill there is the provision to void previous convictions such as the founder of Liberty coins. Why would anyone want to pay their bills in precious metals? Better to use Fiat Currency. The nice thing about precious metals is that they have value in any currency.
I’d pay my bills to the govt in fiat dollars. For regular purchases, I would probably use gold or silver and encourage businesses to accept them. There are wannabe startup banks (warehouses) that would store your precious metals and issue you a debit card that would convert your puchase prices to units of precious metal and deduct that from your account. I like that concept for electronic metals.
I’d probably ask to be paid in gold and silver as well.