Battle of $50 Bill Splitting Republican Ranks

[ClarkUSA]

CINCINNATI — It is a battle that is pitting Republican against Republican.

Representative Patrick T. McHenry of North Carolina wants President Ronald Reagan’s likeness to replace that of President Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill.

But the bill introduced by Mr. McHenry and 17 co-sponsors, the majority from Southern states, has run into a hornets’ nest of opposition from Ohio lawmakers who will not stand still for any slight to their home-state hero... The skirmish has made for strange political bedfellows: Republican fans of Grant are siding with Democrats who never saw eye to eye with Reagan.

“Outside of a few individuals who are fans of Grant specifically, nearly all of the opposition to this proposal has come from liberals who simply don’t like President Reagan’s policies,” Mr. Poling said.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/us/politics/03fifty.html

I predict Nancy Pelosi and the Democratic caucus will make sure McHenry's bill will go nowhere.

[Deep13]

1. I'm a fan of Grant specifically and I don't like Reagan's disasterous policies.

How can they even think about replacing Grant? Anyway, wasn't Grant a Republican?

[ClarkUSA]

2. McHenry specifically chose Grant in order to circumvent possible Dem opposition to the idea.

It didn't work. :evilgrin:

[Deep13]

3. I'm open to putting FDR on the $20. nt

[ClarkUSA]

5. I'm up for that. Republicans would rather put needles in their eyes, though.

What's with republicans and their fixation with Reagan anyway? The man turned the U.S. from the greatest lender nation into the greatest debtor nation. The whole fiscal conservative thang is a total myth. I'm still sickened when I have to fly into DC.

[CTLawGuy]

9. Mr. McHenry is a southern gentleman

so I doubt he is a fan of Grant the Union General during the Civil War, or Lincoln himself for that matter.

[terrell9584]

21. Well, according to any objective historian

Grant was one of the worst and most ineffective presidents the country ever had and it was his ineffective management that worsened the Long Depression for the United States. Not to mention his administration's refusal to reign in the corruption present in the Reconstruction governments led to the bankruptcy of almost every governmental entity in the former Confederate states in the period between 1870-1890.


I'm not saying you replace him with Reagan, but you have to wonder if putting him on the $50 didn't have more to do with waving the bloody shirt and possibly rubbing salt into the South's eyes then anything he actually accomplished because his accomplishments were primarily military and he himself was a major alcoholic.


Grant shouldn't be on the $50 bill. I'm not saying replace him with Reagan but he definitely should not be on that bill. One Democrat that I think merits consideration over Grant would Franklin Roosevelt. A Republican that would merit consideration would be the other Roosevelt. Both were American icons. Of course I don't think you'll see the Southern guys go for FDR because they're Republicans and they wouldn't go for TR because he wasn't elected by the South

[Tom Rinaldo]

24. I could live with Ike

Republicans never seem to want to boast about him even though he was also the Allied Supreme Commander during World War II as well as a two term President.

[Deep13]

25. I guess I look at U.S.G.'s accomplishments as a whole.

Money doesn't just have presidents since Franklin and Hamilton never were.

[rasputin1952]

4. The mere thought of putting Reagan on currency is an affront

to every American.

His disastrous policies and haphazard way in handling the economy sent the nation into a tailspin. If they want to put Reagan's mug on paper, let it be toilet paper!

:patriot:

[ClarkUSA]

7. It makes me ill, too.

I just said something similar regarding the myth of his being a fiscal conservative.

<<If they want to put Reagan's mug on paper, let it be toilet paper!>>

:thumbsup:


If I could only find a reasonably-priced roll made with soy-based ink.... :rofl:

[wolfgangmo]

20. Try Marcal

I buy it by the crate on Quill. 100% recycled.

[Ozymanithrax]

6. It should be mandatory that Reagan appear on every...

roll of toilet paper made in America.

[rgbecker]

8. Read Grant's Memoir and tell me he wasn't the reason the Union won the civil war.

[ClarkUSA]

10. It's no accident that the majority of this bill's co-sponsors are from the South.

After almost 150 years, they are still holding grudges. Oy.

[terrell9584]

22. Well, look at it from the Southern point of view

Bill Clinton I think put it best. It's not the war that Southern citizens have the problem with per se. The problem that Southerners have is that the Reconstruction governments basically served as devices for outsiders to come to the region and loot almost all the economic value out of the region and the people of the South are still paying for that looting even today. Most Southern governments ended up having to declare bankruptcy in the post-Reconstruction period for the actions of the carpetbagger governments.


There is also the fact that for years Southerners were portrayed as traitors, told they they should not honor their ancestors while Union descendants get to honor theirs and so forth. If you think any people would respond to these circumstances with glle and happiness towards those they viewed as wronging them then you don't understand human nature.

[Dr Morbius]

11. I submit he was one reason.

In fact, I'd say that if any one person should be credited as winning the war, it's Grant.

But there was much more than one reason the North won. Smarter logistics, for one thing; consistent communication between central command in DC and Grant, versus sporadic and occasionally confusing communication between southern armies and Richmond; more resources for the Union, and so on. If McClellan hadn't been such a wussy (can I use that word here?), the North would have won two years earlier.

Ulysses Grant is a hero to me as well. That memoir should be required reading, I think. A couple of excellent biographies out there of Grant; fascinating guy.

As to Mr. Reagan, when they print a three dollar bill, put his picture there. A friend of mine calls him the Great Prevaricator; it's fitting. America hasn't yet recovered from Reagan.

[ClarkUSA]

14. Now I'll have to read Grant's memoir. What is the title? n/t

[Dr Morbius]

15. Memoirs of Ulysses Grant, methinks. Here's the link:

http://www.amazon.com/Ulysses-S-Grant-Selected-1839-1865/dp/0940450585/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1270428649&sr=1-1

[ClarkUSA]

17. Thanks! I just put it on hold at my local library.

I'm reading David Plouffe's book about the 2008 campaign right now. It's a fascinating read.

[bornskeptic]

33. It's lso available online

here.
http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/gutbook/lookup?num=4367

[rocktivity]

12. How appropriate this is happening a time of celebrating resurrection

But if the ghost of St. Ronnie didn't save you guys in 2006, what makes them think it will work now?

:eyes:
rocktivity

[TheDebbieDee]

13. Ask the damn repukes how much is it going to cost to replace the US Grant

Fifty with a Ronald Reagan Fifty. Ask them how will the change in bills be paid for. That should shut them right up!

[Dr Morbius]

16. Effectively, not much.

They have to come out with new plates and new designs on a regular basis to combat counterfeiters. So in effect, the cost of changing the image on the fifty is built-in; we already know we'll have to pay for a new design. I'm with you, but this argument won't work this time.

[doc03]

18. Our Repug newspaper did a poll on the subject last week

and Grant won over 70% of the vote. This is red state hell and the paper is a Republican rag. How about putting Reagan's and W's picture those SS IOUs?

[ClarkUSA]

19. That's a telling result.

Republicans are traditionalists, if nothing else.

<<How about putting Reagan's and W's picture those SS IOUs?>>

Yeah, really.

[BeyondGeography]

23. A shred of loyalty to something other than the Reagan Doll exists somewhere in the GOP

I'll take it.

Always thought the story of war veterans raising money for the ailing Grant's memoirs so that his wife and family would be financially secure was one of the more edifying examples of the American character. The man was deeply loved in his day, in a more authentic and historically meaningful way, dare I say, than Reagan ever was.

:patriot:

[ClarkUSA]

36. Not sure if it's loyalty or political self-preservation by OH Republicans but I'll take it, too.

Grant's genius saved the union. Raygun isn't fit to be on any coinage found outside of a McDonald's Happy Meal.

:patriot:

[Deep13]

26. My suggestion: Adams on the 10, FDR on the 20 and...

...either Eisenhower or Theodore Roosevelt on the 50.

Adams is a founding father and the main voice for independence and yet has neither memorials not his face on cash.

Another suggestion:

MLK on the 1, Cady Stanton on the 5, Frederick Douglass on the 10, Joe Hill on the 20, Harvey Milk on the 50 and Harriet Tubman on the 100.

[Deep13]

29. wrong place---delete

[struggle4progress]

27. I'm open to compromise: let's put Reagan on the $3 bill

[unblock]

28. (1) put reagan on the penny (2) immediately stop minting the penny

who needs it anyway.

[boppers]

35. Find a pre-Reagan penny. Bounce it. Find a penny after he had been in office a few years. Bounce it.

The first rings, the second clunks. The first has more copper.

[Deep13]

30. Reagan should go on a bill that automatically loses value over time.

Either that or the $50 foodstamp.

[CTyankee]

31. Can SOMEBODY explain to me why our lawmakers are even TALKING about this?

At a time when our country needs some REAL work done, I cannot for the life of me understand why they are arguing over this useless NONSENSE!

This is exactly why the Congress is held in such low esteem by the American public. The people in this country want government policy to help them EARN and KEEP their dollars, not the pictures on their dollars.

Fer gawd's sake, folks....:headbang:

[fiorello]

32. Can we put Reagan on the proverbial $3-dollar bill? With the Brooklyn Bridge on the back?

After all, that's what Reagan 'sold' to the country.

And with an appropriate Reagan quote ("80% of air pollution is caused by trees" or "the war on poverty - a matchless boondoggle")

[political_Dem]

34. This has been something they've been trying to do for years.

First it was the dime. Then, it was Mount Rushmore. And now the fifty dollar bill?

They should just stick to honoring this horrible man on a toilet paper roll. They've got to realize that not everybody cherishes this man. They also need to stop these delusions of grandeur for good.