Trump's Penny Policy: It makes sense to stop making cents

Normally, printing currency and minting coins costs less than the face value of the money being created. For example, the federal government pays less than $100 for the paper and ink to print a $100 bill. That used to be true for pennies too, because the amount of copper used to mint a penny cost less than one cent.

But decades of deficit-fueled inflation devalued America's currency, so much so that it now costs more than a penny to create one. To preserve its seigniorage (the value gained by turning materials like paper or metal into money), the Treasury began minting pennies out of cheaper metals and using a mere wash of copper on the outside.

This is yet another example of Trump and his team having to clean up the mess left by the Biden administration's failures. Under Biden, the currency lost approximately one-fifth of its value as prices skyrocketed over 20 percent in just four years, while runaway federal spending became the norm, the debt exploded to over $36 trillion, and annual interest on that debt exceeded $1 trillion.

While some may be sentimental about Lincoln's image on our nation's smallest coin, Honest Abe would likely make the same decision as Trump. The self-effacing 16th president faced difficult currency questions himself when trying to finance the Civil War and would certainly rather preserve America's solvency than perpetual his visage on increasingly scarce financial transactions in the digital age.

Additionally, no one should worry about running out of pennies. In fact, there's no reason why today's transactions can't be conducted to the nearest 10th of a dollar instead of the nearest 100th, meaning a single decimal place instead of two.

This is why the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) is so vital in returning America to fiscal sanity. They're going through everything with a fine-tooth comb and ensuring taxpayer dollars are being used appropriately.

We are truly in bad shape financially, and no government spending can be exempt from close examination-down to the penny.