President Donald Trump is one cent away from scrapping the US penny and ‘Shark Tank’ star Kevin O’Leary is agreeing with him.
“For a lot too lengthy, the US has minted pennies which accurately price us greater than 2 cents,” Trump wrote on Reality Social. “That is so wasteful! I’ve instructed my Secretary of the US Treasury to cease producing new pennies.”
Throughout an look on “Varney & Co.,” Monday, O’Leary mentioned the president is “proper” in his request to cease minting.
“It’s silly. Why would you pay $0.02 for a commodity that’s price one?,” O’Leary questioned.
In fiscal yr 2024, the US needed to pay $3.69 to make one penny, $5.76 to make a dime, $13.78 to make a nickel and $14.68 to make 1 / 4, in accordance with the US Mint.
“Who makes use of a penny in any case? Until you’re placing them in your loafers and no one does that anymore. Eliminate it. It’s ineffective,” O’Leary expressed.
The Division of Authorities Effectivity (DOGE), which is led by billionaire Elon Musk, posted on ‘X’ that producing the penny is costing American taxpayers tens of hundreds of thousands of {dollars}, suggesting that it could be one of many gadgets the division might think about eliminating.
Nevertheless, there are some critics who’re pushing again on this transfer by the president.
People for Widespread Cents Government Director Mark Weller advised FOX Enterprise that “eliminating the penny will price the federal government extra — not much less.”
He went on to say that “with out the penny, nickel manufacturing might double, compounding the Mint’s monetary losses. Any structural change to US coinage ought to embody revamping the nickel and evaluating Mint overhead.”
Within the US, the penny was one of many first cash made by the US Mint after its institution in 1792.
When it was first produced, the coin was bigger and manufactured from pure copper.
In the present day’s smaller coin is made principally of zinc, in accordance with the US Mint.
Fox Information’ Greg Wehner and FOX Enterprise’ Daniella Genovese contributed to this report