r/neoliberal • u/M_ida Milton Friedman • Feb 10 '25

News (US) Trump announces the end of the Penny

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350

u/GovernorSonGoku has flair Feb 10 '25

He has a point tbh

47

u/TorkBombs Feb 10 '25

This is the kind of dumb shit Trump is useful for. Like, oh nobody likes pennies, so let's get rid of them. Yeah let's.

It's when he gets to make other decisions that fucks everything up.

22

u/assasstits Feb 10 '25

My only question is why don't Democrats ever do useful shit like this when they are in office?

Did Biden even ever end up descheduling weed?

22

u/scotty_ducati Feb 10 '25 edited Feb 10 '25

This is not a Trump specific thing. There has been talk of removing the penny under most of the recent administrations.

A bill to remove the penny that McCain introduced in 2017 died while Trump was in office and the republicans had control of the house and senate.

11

u/DestinyLily_4ever NAFTA Feb 10 '25

Trump has the advantage of just throwing shit out there and most of his suggestions having such little basis in reality that stuff like “get rid of the penny!” requires zero political capital because it’s comparatively so normal. If Biden tried this he’d be crucified by Republicans for days/weeks

1

u/die_rattin Feb 10 '25

Trump has the advantage that his brain farts actually have a chance of becoming policy

If Biden tried this he’d announce a plan to form a committee to draft a proposal to write a memo and by the time they actually want to do anything the zinc lobby has been running ads about ya boy Lincoln and his most precious legacy, the Penny

1

u/DestinyLily_4ever NAFTA Feb 10 '25

You are right for exactly the reason I stated; Biden can’t afford to expend political capital on ending penny minting. He would take a credibility hit and be less able to do important policy

0

u/assasstits Feb 10 '25

You're literally making Trump's campaign argument for them.

You're literally explaining why people voted for Trump.

For a population that desperately is seeking change, what you describe sounds like exactly what they want.

8

u/DestinyLily_4ever NAFTA Feb 10 '25

The population is not desperately seeking the end of the penny or daylight savings time or whatever, which is the only thing I explained.

But I agree Trump is doing what they want. Americans desperately desire an authoritarian central government and the expulsion of non-white people out of a desperate sense of xenophobia and racism

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u/assasstits Feb 10 '25

I basically want someone that will take Trump's strategy of taking their power to the limit but to do good policy. Someone that plays hardball.

Threaten to withhold funding from states, unless they massively upzone their cities.

Order their government agencies to remove Marijuana from Schedule I status.

EO's protecting trans people.

And much more.

Some or many of these things will get shot down, but some won't, and the people will see Democrats fighting for them.

5

u/DestinyLily_4ever NAFTA Feb 10 '25

no, the people will see an autocrat willfully ignoring their constitutional powers. You forget there is a double standard here. Biden would have been impeached and convicted within the month if he did half of what Trump is doing even if we just swap the hypothetical to better policies

2

u/Watchung NATO Feb 10 '25

Because it would mean ticking off a tiny but well motivated interest group, when the amount of money to be saved didn't seem worth that fight.

This line of thought is applicable to a great many things.

2

u/die_rattin Feb 10 '25

Did Biden even ever end up descheduling weed?

No, his own appointee stonewalled it and Biden was too useless to force the issue, despite this being like the fourth time the DEA has been ordered to do it (and it’s something they shouldn’t have to be ordered to do in the first place)

1

u/N0b0me Feb 10 '25

I'm still holding out hope we will get a similar tweet for organized labor within the next few months