Championship Subdivision Football | FCS Football | Stadiums | Blogs | Forums

Proposal would put Ronald Reagan's face on the $50 bill
Rep. Patrick McHenry's bill to replace Ulysses S. Grant's image with the 40th president's generates controversy.
By Richard Simon

March 3, 2010
E-mail Print Share Text Size

Reporting from Washington - Ronald Reagan is honored by, among other things, an airport, a freeway, an aircraft carrier and -- ironically for a critic of big government -- one of the biggest federal buildings in Washington.

Now, some of the late president's admirers are launching a new effort to add another honor: printing his likeness on a $50 bill in place of Ulysses S. Grant's.

In polls of presidential scholars, Reagan consistently outranks Grant, said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), who introduced legislation to make the change.

But at least one Democrat who serves on the House Financial Services Committee, where the proposal has been sent, isn't ready to jettison Grant for "someone whose policies are still controversial."

"Our currency ought to be something that unites us," said Rep. Brad Sherman (D-Sherman Oaks).

Grant admirers, who credit him for leading the Union Army to victory during the Civil War, were none too pleased either.

"I'm very upset," said Keya Morgan, a New York-based Grant scholar who has a Web page on the 18th president. "I have all the respect in the world for Reagan, but what he accomplished is not anywhere as important as what Ulysses S. Grant accomplished."

An earlier proposal to put Reagan on the dime in place of President Franklin D. Roosevelt drew objections from Democrats, for whom Roosevelt is as much of a hero as Reagan is for Republicans. An effort to put Reagan on the $20 bill in place of Andrew Jackson drew opposition from Tennessee lawmakers.

A 2005 move to put Reagan on the $50 bill never made it out of the House Financial Services Committee, even though Republicans controlled the chamber at the time.

"President Reagan is indisputably one of the most transformative presidents of the 20th century," McHenry said in a letter to colleagues seeking their support. "Like President Roosevelt on the dime and President Kennedy on the half dollar, President Reagan deserves a place of honor on our nation's currency."

The move comes as efforts are underway in California and Nevada to name mountains after Reagan and as planning gets underway for a yearlong observance in 2011 of the 100th anniversary of Reagan's birth.

richard.simon@ latimes.com

houndawg wrote: Why not just name a landfill after him or one of the garbage barges?

AZGrizFan wrote:

houndawg wrote: Why not just name a landfill after him or one of the garbage barges?

Or a whorehouse?





No, wait....that's reserved for after Billy-boy has "the big one".

"Our currency ought to be something that unites us,"...

Grant admirers, who credit him for leading the Union Army to victory during the Civil War, were none too pleased either.

"I'm very upset," said Keya Morgan, a New York-based Grant scholar who has a Web page on the 18th president. "I have all the respect in the world for Reagan, but what he accomplished is not anywhere as important as what Ulysses S. Grant accomplished."

houndawg wrote:

AZGrizFan wrote:
Or a whorehouse?





No, wait....that's reserved for after Billy-boy has "the big one".

Reagan hadn't seen a bearded clam since at least the Eisenhower Administration.

Maybe just name a county in Nevada where prostitution is legal after Clinton. Or instead of "whorehouse" we could call them Billdellos.

hank scorpio wrote:

89Hen wrote:

hank scorpio wrote:

What a great ad. Think that'd fly today?

hank scorpio wrote:

89Hen wrote:

"Our currency ought to be something that unites us,"...

Grant admirers, who credit him for leading the Union Army to victory during the Civil War, were none too pleased either.

"I'm very upset," said Keya Morgan, a New York-based Grant scholar who has a Web page on the 18th president. "I have all the respect in the world for Reagan, but what he accomplished is not anywhere as important as what Ulysses S. Grant accomplished."

I'm sure there are plenty of southerners who don't like Grant. So much for unity.

BTW, why not have MacArthur on a bill if leading the military is the great accomplishment worthy of this?

kalm wrote:

In polls of presidential scholars, Reagan consistently outranks Grant, said Rep. Patrick T. McHenry (R-N.C.), who introduced legislation to make the change.

Cluck U wrote:I bet if this poll of presidential scholars was held back in 1898, Grant would not lose to Reagan.

OL FU wrote:Oh Hell let's just put Sherman on the $50

hank scorpio wrote:

OL FU wrote:Oh Hell let's just put Sherman on the $50

With this on the reverse side.

ASUMountaineer wrote:This is stupid, WGAF? Of course, Jackson being on the $20 is classic irony, but oh well. I'm glad McHenry thinks Congress has time to deal with this BS, as opposed to other matters. What a douche...

Ibanez wrote:

ASUMountaineer wrote:This is stupid, WGAF? Of course, Jackson being on the $20 is classic irony, but oh well. I'm glad McHenry thinks Congress has time to deal with this BS, as opposed to other matters. What a douche...

Jackson accomplished what no other President had or has: Paid off the National Debt(just forget how it tripled after he left office)

catamount man wrote:Lee freed his slaves long before the drunk did.

Ibanez wrote:

catamount man wrote:Lee freed his slaves long before the drunk did.

Lee also freed them before the UNITED STATES freed slaves. Truth.


As to Jackson, wasn't he more opposed to the corrupt men running the Central B ank? My history is a little iffy....

The Second Bank of the United States was authorized for a twenty year period during James Madison's tenure in 1816. As President, Jackson worked to rescind the bank's federal charter. In Jackson's veto message (written by George Bancroft), the bank needed to be abolished because:
It concentrated the nation's financial strength in a single institution.
It exposed the government to control by foreign interests.
It served mainly to make the rich richer.
It exercised too much control over members of Congress.
It favored northeastern states over southern and western states.
Following Jefferson, Jackson supported an "agricultural republic" and felt the Bank improved the fortunes of an "elite circle" of commercial and industrial entrepreneurs at the expense of farmers and laborers. After a titanic struggle, Jackson succeeded in destroying the Bank by vetoing its 1832 re-charter by Congress and by withdrawing U.S. funds in 1833

• Nobody in his district has even seen a fifty dollar bill in over two years
• They probably don't remember which son of a bitch is currently on the front of the bill
• They're probably not in the right frame of mind to care which son of a bitch our elected son of a bitch wants to replace the old son of a bitch with