Washington, D.C. – Oregon’s U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley and Utah’s Senator Mike Lee introduced bipartisan legislation today that would advance responsible spending by ending production of the penny.
Striking the penny has become increasingly costly, and the Make Sense Not Cents Act would permanently eliminate this wasteful spending. Each penny costs nearly 4 cents to make—a number that has risen more than 20 percent year-over-year due to the rising costs of materials—and ending production of the penny could save the United States over $85 million annually.
“It’s the opposite of ‘common cents’ for taxpayers’ dollars to fund wasteful spending like producing pennies,” said Merkley. “The Make Sense Not Cents Act will save taxpayers millions—and that is something that both Democrats and Republicans support to seriously take on government waste.”
“Minting pennies costs the American taxpayer millions every year – nearly four times more than the pennies are worth,” said Lee. “No private business would produce something at a 4x loss. It’s time to stop wasting Americans’ hard-earned tax dollars making overpriced pennies.”
Nearly two-thirds of pennies produced in the U.S. do not ever recirculate, meaning billions of pennies are buried in couch cushions, or simply lost, never to be used in transactions again. Further, in an era of online and digital banking, only 16 percent of transactions are made with cash.
For decades, both Republicans and Democrats alike have called to end the penny’s production, including President Trump and former President Obama who said, “anytime we’re spending more money on something that people don’t actually use, that’s an example of something we should probably change.” The Make Sense Not Cents Act is a straightforward solution to save Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars while keeping existing pennies in circulation.
Full text of the Make Sense Not Cents Act can be found by clicking here.
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