Dear editor:

Taxpayers and small businesses across the country cheered when Congress and the President created the Super Committee to identify $1.5 trillion in federal spending cuts to get the budget in order.
While the committee is working diligently to find those cuts, certain special interests are trying to use this process to further their own narrow agendas.  One example is the proposal being floated by a Congressman in Arizona to do away with the paper dollar bill in favor of a large, gold-colored $1 coin.  His goal is to promote Arizona mined metals, which would be used for these coins.
Instead of reducing spending, this boondoggle would actually cost taxpayers nearly $5 billion to produce enough coins to meet the demand for dollars in the U.S. economy.
We have seen proposals to use dollar coins before, and these schemes have failed miserably.  Again and again the American people have consistently chosen paper dollars and, increasingly, electronic transactions over dollar coins.
The Super Committee should reject this expensive proposal and focus instead on the task at hand — reducing federal spending.
A switch from paper to dollar coins is “change” Michigan doesn’t need!

Sincerely,

Jim Byrum
President
Michigan Agribusiness Association