WASHINGTON — President Obama’s new budget plan calls for more spending, more taxes and a downgrade for your pocket change.
The nearly $4 trillion budget released Tuesday sought to improve government efficiency and rack up savings by using cheaper metal to make penny and nickel coins.
The budget noted that the production of pennies and nickels has not been altered in decades, and it cites the prevalence of electronic commerce as a good reason to start rethinking coinage.
It’s not the first time Obama has made the proposal, which has bipartisan support but still gets scuttled every time after objections by groups such as coin-operated businesses.
The 2015 budget doesn’t provide an estimate of the potential savings from minting cheaper change. But last year, the cost of producing a penny was put at 2 cents and the price of a nickel at 11 cents.
Obama’s penny pinching isn’t the only proposal expected to go nowhere.
The entire package — which would raise taxes on the wealthy and spend heavily on tax credits for lower-income workers, road projects, job training and universal preschool — has virtually no chance of getting enacted.
“In the president’s vision for our future, America’s budget never balances — ever,” said House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell called it a “political stunt . . . that’s more about firing up the president’s base in an election year than about solving the nation’s biggest and most persistent long-term challenges.”