MT State Rep Joins Other States in Introducing Bill Allowing State Transactions Based on Electronic Commodity Currency
As a follow up to a recent posting on State-based monetary initiatives, Montana State Rep. Bob Wagner introduced HB639 (status page):
A BILL FOR AN ACT ENTITLED: “AN ACT ALLOWING THE STATE OF MONTANA AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS TO CONDUCT VARIOUS FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS IN GOLD, GOLD AND SILVER COIN, ELECTRONIC GOLD CURRENCY, OR LEGAL TENDER OF THE UNITED STATES; ALLOWING CERTAIN PERSONS CONDUCTING VARIOUS FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS WITH THE STATE OR POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS TO CONDUCT THE TRANSACTIONS IN GOLD, GOLD AND SILVER COIN, ELECTRONIC GOLD CURRENCY, OR LEGAL TENDER OF THE UNITED STATES; REQUIRING THAT CERTAIN FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS BETWEEN THE STATE AND OTHER PERSONS INVOLVING CERTAIN TAXES, FEES, AND CHARGES ON CIGARETTES AND TOBACCO PRODUCTS BE CONDUCTED IN ELECTRONIC GOLD CURRENCY; REQUIRING THE DEPARTMENT OF ADMINISTRATION TO ADOPT RULES FOR THE ADMINISTRATION OF PAYMENT BY AND RECEIPT BY THE STATE AND POLITICAL SUBDIVISIONS IN GOLD, GOLD AND SILVER COIN, OR ELECTRONIC GOLD CURRENCY …
Via WorldNetDaily.com:
Wagner joins legislators in several other states encouraging their respective governments to reconsider accepting gold as a form of payment. Indiana’s S.B. 453, Colorado’s H.B. 09-1206, Missouri’s H.B. 0561, Georgia’s H.B. 430 and Maryland’s H.J.R. 5 are among the gold currency bills introduced just this year in various legislatures.
Montana’s H.B. 639 has been referred to the Legislature’s State Administration Committee.
WorldNetDaily further explains…
A bill being considered in the Montana Legislature blasts the Federal Reserve’s role in America’s money policy and permits the state to conduct businessin gold and silver instead of the Fed’s legal tender notes.
Montana H.B. 639, sponsored by State Rep. Bob Wagner, R-Harrison, doesn’t require the state or citizens to conduct business in gold or silver, but it does require the state to calculate certain transactions in both the current legal tender system and in an electronic gold currency. It further mandates that the state must accept payments in gold or silver for various fees and purchases.
While Wagner was unavailable for comment, the bill’s language clearly alleges the nation’s current financial system, with its reliance on the private Federal Reserve system for money supply, is a danger to American freedom.
“The absence of gold and silver coin, whether in that form or in the form of an electronic gold currency, as media of exchange,” the bill states, “abridges, infringes on and interferes with the sovereignty and independence of this state … and exposes this state and Montana citizens, inhabitants and businesses to chronic problems and potentially serious crises that may arise from the economic and political instability of the present domestic and international systems of coinage, currency, banking and credit.”
Further, the bill states, relying only on the depreciating legal tender issued by the Fed subjects citizens to “losses in purchasing power” inflicted by the government, a dilemma the bill says amounts to the “incremental confiscation” of property by government in violation of the U.S. Constitution’s protections for just compensation and due process.
The Fifth Amendment states, “No person shall be … deprived of life, liberty or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without justcompensation.”
Critics of the current financial system argue that using Federal Reserve notes as legal tender, rather than gold- or silver-backed currency, means the value of Americans’ money – and thus their “property” – is siphoned away by inflation, a process perpetuated by the government’s reliance on legal tender. Gold and silver, critics say, don’t lose their value on the whims of the Federal Reserve.
A current listing of State-based initiatives can be found here.
-Phil
Bob,
I again must pick myself up off the floor after having laughed out loud at this comment.
[ahem] It would appear to me that perhaps you need to create your own web site, as apparently you so disapprove of the way I handle my site (yet, of course, you continue coming back for more and more and more) that you’re going to try to brow-beat me into changing the way I do things. But wait, that’s probably not a good idea, because then neither one of us would have a really good laugh at the other’s expense, now, would we?
I’ll go ahead and spell out the rationale for the sidebar comments (since you’re being rather obtuse about the issue). Since you apparently don’t notice that I don’t post a new posting every so many minutes or even hours, I need to give some latitude as to the variance of commentary that does get posted to a given posting. This is how I run my site.
-Phil
I think it’s much more fun to watch you spin everything on a technicality!
Like actual facts, or laws? Those kinds of technicalities?
Does conservapedia or anyone else claim that said site is “fair and balanced,” as you’ve just characterized it?
It’s a satirical reference to another conservative media outlet that unironically uses that as its motto. Do you need a diagram drawn for you?
But, really, you have incredible inability to stay on topic. Bob Schultz is a rather infamamous tax protestor. Rather than discuss that (which is germane to this topic), you rather discusss wikipedia, or me. Odd.
Bob,
I think it’s much more fun to watch you spin everything on a technicality!
In fact, here’s a prime example of such spin:
Does conservapedia or anyone else claim that said site is “fair and balanced,” as you’ve just characterized it?
-Phil
Could explain a lot concerning the present global economy, now, couldn’t it?
It could, but to do so, it would require providing an actual explanation.
Now, if only WikiPedia treated the President with the same lop-sided viewpoints
If you can’t dispute the facts, just shoot the messenger, eh?
(The “fair and balanced” conservapedia doesn’t even have an entry for Bob Schultz (or his tax shennigans).)
Dear Phil -
Barter is a reasonable way to effect trade. For example, remember the guy who parlayed a red paper clip into a house? Nothing is wrong (i.e. not right) with that, as long as capital gains taxes, if any, are paid!
Best,
Joe
Bob,
Could explain a lot concerning the present global economy, now, couldn’t it?
-Phil
Now, if only WikiPedia treated the President with the same lop-sided viewpoints, I’d be happy (and, of course, to me, my being happy is all that matters….).
-Phil
currency was backed by other than government fiat
Can you name a currency that isn’t backed by government fiat?
Anybody that doesn’t know who Bob Shulz is and the “We The People Foundation” should make it a priority
Knowledge is power:
Bob Schultz
We the People Foundation
As I understand it, an unapportioned tax, or any tax on labor is unconstitutional.
The IRS and federal courts don’t see it that way. Filing returns based on that belief may result in fines, penalties, and possibly criminal prosecution.
Phil,
As I understand it, an unapportioned tax, or any tax on labor is unconstitutional. Check out “Freedom to Fascism”, and see if you still think the IRS is constitutional.
Have you been to your local meeting organized to inform and MOBILIZE the American citizens into nominating delegates for the 2009 Continental Congress that is happening this year? I have. It gives “We The People” REDRESS. Learn It, Love It, Live It! Redress is what we need to take our country back. We have a right written into the Constitution to do so. We DON’T have to wait 4 more years. Period.
http://www.wethepeoplefoundation.org/
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dwOjrHGC_aU
Anybody that doesn’t know who Bob Shulz is and the “We The People Foundation” should make it a priority and then take ACTION to educate others to do the same.
“This Right, and the corollary Right to enforce the Right to Secure Redress by withholding taxes holds the promise to correct much of what ails our nation. The GML 2007 conference will focus on the broader application of the Right to Petition to address numerous areas of constitutional abuse by our government.”
Bob Shulz is the real deal. He is non-partisan.
Bryan,
There’s actually nothing inherently unconstitutional about the IRS, per se. It existed since at least the Civil War in this nation. As far as the Federal Reserve is concerned, I don’t think most people would have a problem with it if it (1) was properly audited like the DoD and (2) currency was backed by other than government fiat.
-Phil
Every “Patriot” should read “The Creature From Jekyll Island”. A rather lengthy book, but one of the best books I’ve ever read. The book was published first in 1994. Everything stated in it is so amazingly prophetic, it’s scary. Throughout, one can recognize everything that is currently transpiring in our society. I was never aware how our current monetary system is designed to operate. I believe most of us are ignorant of it. It’s apparent that is the way the elite want it, and us kept. What the Framers of our Constitution designed was very simple and beautiful. We have all been lied to by these people for more than a century. Also watch either youtube or google videos, “Freedom to Fascism”.
The good news is, the problem can be rectified literally overnight by Congress. But only if we force them to. The economic ills of our country can be easily made well be eliminating the “Fed” and the “IRS”, which are both unconstitutional. And force all branches of government, to operate within their budget just as does every conscientious household in this nation.
magna carta,
There already is provision in the proposed bills to allow for a federally-mandated money system besides an electronic system based on commodities. In theory, it’s about getting the currency to be backed up (made of value) by something of value, not merely government fiat (whatever the government says it’s worth).
-Phil
What is the liklihood of passing these bills.It is time to say goodbye to the FED.What total scum they are!
Is it Constitutional for states to make their own monetary system?Will this act as an ALTERNATIVE or COMPETITION to the FED?