Changing Paper Would Save US $500 Million

With the federal deficit never ending and never lowering, there could be an easy way to make at least a half billion dollar dent in it. There is one thing they (or we) could do that would reduce the federal paperwork by over $522 million. It's simple. It's painless. And it's easy.

For the last decade the federal government has been trying to persuade Americans to make one simple change that would do it. Metal industry lobbiests and the vending machine companies got behind it.

The Government Accountability Office, the federal office that is the watchdog over all aspects of the federal government, was for it and released a report in April 200 that said it would save the government $522 million.

Citizens Against Government Waste, the folks who've been fighting congressional earmarks for years, released a report last Spring saying they were all for it. Anti-tax groups like Americans for Tax Reform gave it a thumbs up.

Heck, even the US Mint, the folks who make our money, are for it. Seems like everyone is for it but no one is doing it.

The government even spent $67 million dollars trying to get people to do it. This one simple cost-saving tip that would save the government what seems like an awful lot of money, but habits are hard to change and people just wouldn't change.

It's simple. Get rid of the dollar bill and use the dollar coin instead. The simple fact is that metal coins last longer than paper does. There's lots of wasteful spending going on in Washington, yes, but here's an example of something that you and I (and everyone else) can do right now to help stop it. Don't use dollar bills.

Now, I know that some folks are upset that when they came out with the presidential series of dollar coins some stupid designer took the "In God We Trust" phrase off the obvious face of the coin where it had been forever and put it on the coin's edge, but you don't reward one unknown person's stupidity by being stupid yourself.

In God We Trust was moved back to the coin's face in 2009 and it is still on the new dollar coins, it's just in smaller print. The rumor that it isn't on the coin at all is just a myth. And if that really bothers you, then the way to fix that is by writing a letter to all your federal elected officials and tell them to put it back on the front big and obvious.

Besides, there's plenty of those Sacagawea dollar coins (minted 2000-2006) you can use and even some of those Anthony dollar coins (minted 1979-1999) too.

Meanwhile, you can help our government save money by simply stop taking and using dollar bills. Your local bank has plenty of dollar coins for you to use. And if you really want to get adventurous and daring - well you might even start using two dollar bills too.

Neither political party may ever get around to cutting the federal deficit, but you help a little too.