Arizona Bill HB 2014 – Precious Metals as Legal Tender

[Y_Participant 4591]

Arizona Challenges the Fed’s Currency Monopoly With Real Money Alternative : Bill HB 2014

The Hon. Dr Ron Paul will be in Arizona on 8th March 2017 to help rally support for Bill HB 2014, and speaking on behalf of the bill before the Arizona Senate Finance Committee at 9:00 a.m. (State Time)

The Arizona Senate Finance and Rules Committees will consider legislation of Bill HB 2014 today.

He will also be speaking at a rally at noon at the Arizona state capitol. Dr Paul hopes every supporter of sound money in the Phoenix area joins him to show their support for ending the Fed’s money monopoly.

What is Bill HB 2014?

Bill HB 2014 officially defines gold, silver, and other precious metals as legal tender in the State of Arizona. The bill also exempts transactions in precious metals from state capital gains taxes, thus ensuring that people are not punished by the taxman for rejecting Federal Reserve notes in favor of gold or silver.

Since inflation increases the value of precious metals, these taxes on PM’s give the Federal government one more way to profit from the Federal Reserve’s currency debasement.

Since the 2008 Fed-created economic meltdown, more Americans have become aware of the Federal Reserve’s responsibility for America’s economic problems. This growing anti-Fed sentiment is one of the key factors behind the Ron Paul Liberty Movement’s growth and represents the most serious challenge to the Fed’s legitimacy in its history.

HB 2014 is a very important and timely piece of legislation. The Federal Reserve’s failure to reignite the economy with record-low interest rates since the last crash is a sign that we may soon see the dollar’s collapse.

It is therefore imperative that the law protect people’s right to use alternatives to what may soon be virtually worthless Federal Reserve notes.

Passage of HB 2014 would also send a message to Congress and the Trump administration that the anti-Fed movement is growing in influence. Thus, passage of this bill will not just strengthen movements in other states to pass similar legislation; it will also help build support for the Audit the Fed bill and legislation repealing federal legal tender laws.

Of course, modern politicians and their Keynesian enablers despise the gold or silver standard. This is because linking a currency to a precious metal limits the ability of central banks to finance the growth of the welfare-warfare state via the inflation tax. This forces politicians to finance big government much more with direct means of taxation which allows the public to know how much has been stolen from their pockets.

If Bill HB 2014 goes through, mandatory cashless banking cannot be implemented in Arizona State.

Gold and Silver are the only way to bring real prosperity back to the nation and put a brake on the banksters’ plans for total currency domination.

We wish Dr Paul and the great State of Arizona well in this critical milestone on the War against Real Money.

History

Rep. Mark Finchem (R-Tucson) introduced House Bill 2014 (HB2014) on 9th Jan. 2014. The legislation would eliminate state capital gains taxes on income “derived from the exchange of one kind of legal tender for another kind of legal tender.” The bill defines legal tender as “a medium of exchange, including specie, that is authorized by the United States Constitution or Congress for the payment of debts, public charges, taxes and dues.” “Specie” means coins having precious metal content.

In effect, passage of the bill would “legalize the Constitution” by treating gold and silver specie as money.

HB2014 passed the House Ways and Means Committee by a 5-0 vote, with four members abstaining.

Under current Arizona law, gold and silver are subject to capital gains tax when exchanged for Federal Reserve notes, or when used in barter transactions. If the purchasing power of the Federal Reserve note has decreased due to inflation, the metals’ nominal dollar value generally rises and that triggers a “gain.” In most cases, of course, the capital gain is purely fictional. But these “gains” are still taxed — thus unfairly punishing people using precious metals as money.

Currently, all debts and taxes in Arizona must be paid with either Federal Reserve Notes (dollars), authorized as legal tender by Congress, or with coins issued by the U.S. Treasury — very few of which have gold or silver in them.

But the United States Constitution states in Article I, Section 10, “No State shall…make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts.”

The Arizona bills take a step towards that constitutional requirement, ignored for decades in every state. Such a tactic would undermine the monopoly or the Federal Reserve by introducing competition into the monetary system.

Professor William Greene is an expert on constitutional tender and said when people in multiple states actually start using gold and silver instead of Federal Reserve Notes, it would effectively nullify the Federal Reserve and end the federal government’s monopoly on money.

Over time, as residents of the state use both Federal Reserve notes and silver and gold coins, the fact that the coins hold their value more than Federal Reserve notes do will lead to a “reverse Gresham’s Law” effect, where good money (gold and silver coins) will drive out bad money (Federal Reserve notes). As this happens, a cascade of events can begin to occur, including the flow of real wealth toward the state’s treasury, an influx of banking business from outside of the state – as people in other states carry out their desire to bank with sound money – and an eventual outcry against the use of Federal Reserve notes for any transactions.

Once things get to that point, Federal Reserve notes would become largely unwanted and irrelevant for ordinary people. Nullifying the Fed on a state by state level is what will get us there.

Citation
http://ronpaulinstitute.org/archives/featured-articles/2017/march/05/arizona-challenges-the-fed-s-money-monopoly/

[narrow road travelerParticipant 1680]

The more states in the union that recognize other currencies. The better. If things go south, at least there are havens to rebuild in. I read that Texas already passed a similar bill.

The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting. --Sun Tsu

[BlacqueJacqueShellacqueParticipant 6890]

Thanks Yumbo. Another excellent post and development.

[Y_Participant 4591]

narrow road traveler wrote:

I read that Texas already passed a similar bill.

No – this is a first.

Texas has passed a bill to create a gold bullion storage vault.
You can read about it here

http://www.theepochtimes.com/n3/1382264-texas-gold-bill-has-potential-to-uproot-monetary-system/

The State of Utah on 27th Jan 2017 has introduced a house bill HB 224 similar to Arizona’s HB 2014.

Rep. Ken Ivory (R-West Jordan) introduced HB 224. The legislation would add several provisions to state law designed to encourage the use of gold and silver as legal tender. Passage would set the stage for expansion of gold repositories in the state and authorize further study on several sound money policies.

We have to note that all these states acting to use real money are the southern states – which have never given up the fight to retain PM’s as legal tender.

[BlacqueJacqueShellacqueParticipant 6890]

Y_ wrote:

The legislation would add several provisions to state law designed to encourage the use of gold and silver as legal tender.

Isn’t this America’s Constitutional money? I thought America was originally designed so that ONLY gold and silver were money? Mr. Yumbo?

[Mysterious ManParticipant 337]

This is great, but there’s no way in hell (((Trump))) would allow this s~~~ to ever happen. He is too serving his (((masters))) and rambling on about the election.

We need to kick the central bankers out of our country and bring back the gold and silver standard.

"Our virtues and our failings are inseparable, like force and matter. When they separate, man is no more." -Nikola Tesla

[Y_Participant 4591]

BlacqueJacqueShellacque wrote:

Isn’t this America’s Constitutional money? I thought America was originally designed so that ONLY gold and silver were money? Mr. Yumbo?

Hi BlacqueJacque

(Apologies – just got back from work)

You are absolutely right Sir. By the US Constitution only gold and silver are legal tender. But through slight-of-hand they are kept out of circulation.

Exactly what is legal tender? It is a legal requirement that lays out what form of financial instruments should be used for transactions to take place – dollars, gold, pigs etc. This also means what the financial institutions accept as payment etc.

The two situations that made PM’s impossible to use was (1) the halt of gold and silver coins for use as money – the Gold Reserve Act of 1934 removed gold from circulation and silver in 1960’s was withdrawn slowly although silver certificates were still used until 1968. (2) the in-convertibility of gold and silver to the Federal Reserve Note (not buying just conversion)

There was an Act of Congress in 1965 that made the Federal Reserve Note the preferred manner of payment. This allowed banks to refuse gold and silver for any kind of payment or trade – which is also allowed by the constitution because of in convertibility. Therefore to make sure gold and silver went out of circulation the bankers refused to have anything to do with PM’s.

So although you are allowed to use PM’s no financial institution will accept them as the bankers deem them not legal tender. So it is assumed they are not legal tender by the majority of people.

What the state law does is to force the institutions to accept PM’s or face criminal or civil penalties. This is the gist of it but you can see it is a smoke and mirrors trick.

[Y_Participant 4591]

Mysterious Man wrote:

This is great, but there’s no way in hell (((Trump))) would allow this s~~~ to ever happen. He is too serving his (((masters))) and rambling on about the election.

This is not the first time a bill like this has been brought to state legislature. They have failed either here or by being vetoed by the Governor and with not enough house votes to overturn the veto.

Dr Paul is right. It has to be done at the state level so that other states can see the benefits and jump on the bandwagon – which makes the change stronger. There will be no way Washington will willingly go down this route.

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