Move Over, Uly

         Mischief is afoot in the U. S. Congress, this time led by Rep. Patrick McHenry (R-NC). Bored from dealing with the recession, joblessness, and climate change, the imaginative legislator has turned his attention to redesigning our currency.

        McHenry believe there would be some value added to the $50 bill by having Ronald Reagan’s likeness inscribed on it instead of some old guy named Ulysses S. Grant. McHenry has been joined in this holy quest by 13 co-sponsors in the House.

        The congressman makes the argument that there are two modern presidents—both Democrats—on our currency now: Roosevelt is on the dime and Kennedy on the half-dollar. “Every generation needs it own heroes,” McHenry said in his attempt to bump Grant, our 18th president and the general who led the Union army to victory during the Civil War. Hmmm… come to think of it, might this be a Civil War re-enactment battle and one last chance to eradicate the pesky general from memory?

        Now, I can’t recall when I last saw a Grant-engraved $50 bill. I deal far more with the likeness of Washington, Lincoln, and Jackson. But if we were going to re-picture the currency with a 20th century president, I would opt for the image of Harry Truman rather than the Gipper.

        Actually, it would be best to leave well enough alone, as my grandmother often said. Apparently, the head of the House Financial Services Committee, Democrat Brad Sherman thinks so, too. He isn’t inclined to remove Grant for “someone whose policies are still controversial.”

        It’s good to know that other attempts at shuffling the pictures on our currency have failed. A similar proposal to McHenry’s made in 2005 failed. An attempt to replace Roosevelt with Reagan on the dime has been nixed, as has a try to erase Andrew Jackson from the $20 bill in favor of Reagan.

        It’s not like Reagan is missing his due in history. His name is on the Washington airport, a freeway, an aircraft carrier and one of the biggest government buildings in DC. What’s more the Ronald Reagan Legacy Project has as its mission to deify the former president by putting his name on a public building in all fifty states.

       But when it comes to the $50 bill, my grandmother's advice is worth following.  Sometimes it's best to leave well enough alone.