Reason Magazine
•Business
Business & Economics
To cut government spending, Trump targets pocket change
Summary
Nutrition label
72% Informative
President Donald Trump has ordered the secretary of the treasury to end the production of the penny.
Last year marked the 19th consecutive fiscal year that the unit cost of making pennies was above its face value.
There are roughly 240 billion pennies in circulation, enough for every U.S. resident to have 700 pennies.
VR Score
77
Informative language
76
Neutral language
61
Article tone
formal
Language
English
Language complexity
51
Offensive language
not offensive
Hate speech
not hateful
Attention-grabbing headline
not detected
Known propaganda techniques
not detected
Time-value
short-lived
External references
10
https://www.usmint.gov/content/dam/usmint/reports/2024-annual-report.pdf?srsltid=AfmBOop6-dLzDj0mPlCzcT_duCzBl47Se9iC58IpIr8nkCDSYq1_AZRxhttps://www.congress.gov/bill/109th-congress/house-bill/5818https://apnews.com/article/trump-penny-treasury-mint-c4510debefe6cbfb0dd908d8fed7eb50https://news.wfu.edu/2025/02/13/why-eliminating-the-penny-makes-sense/https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/penny-pinching-can-obama-manage-elimination-one-cent-coin-flna1c8430291https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-8/https://www.budget.canada.ca/2012/themes/theme2-eng.html#:~:text=Phasing%20Out%20the%20Penny,-Introduction&text=In%20Economic%20Action%20Plan%202012,penny%20from%20Canada's%20coinage%20system.https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/2528https://thehill.com/homenews/nexstar_media_wire/5136872-the-us-could-ditch-the-penny-what-happened-when-canada-did-it/#:~:text=Once%20sorted%2C%20pennies%20could%20be,banks%20to%20swap%20them%20out.https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/31/5111
Source diversity
9