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NC Congressman Wants To Put Reagan On $50 Bill

By Lois Alley, The Raleigh Telegram

Thursday, March 4, 2010

WASHINGTON DC - In a move that has made national headlines, North Carolina Congressman wants to replace one Illinois Republican with another Illinois Republican on the $50 bill.

Congressman Patrick McHenry (R-NC) announced new legislation this week in House Bill #4705, that would replace the portrait of President Ulysses S. Grant with the likeness of the 40th President, Ronald Reagan, on the $50 bill.

In a statement to the press McHenry, who serves the 10th District of North Carolina in the mountains, called Reagan “indisputably one of the transformative leaders of the 20th century.”

Although Reagan is known more for working in California as a movie star and later as governor, he grew up in Illinois, which is where President Grant was also born. Grant served as a Union general in the Civil War before serving as President between 1869 and 1877. Both President Reagan and Grant served two terms.

With the exception of special editions, there haven’t been many changes to the American currency in terms of who appears on regular coins and paper bills.

Two big changes took place when President John F. Kennedy replaced Benjamin Franklin on the 50 cent piece in 1963 and President Dwight D. Eisenhower was put on the silver dollar coin from 1971 - 1978. Of course, since then the dollar coin has also featured Susan B. Athony, Sacagawea, and all of the Presidents as part of a new series issued by the US Mint.

“Every generation needs its own heroes,” said Congressman McHenry in a statement. “One decade into the 21st century, it’s time to honor the last great president of the 20th and give President Reagan a place beside Presidents Roosevelt and Kennedy.”

“President Reagan was a modern day statesman, whose presidency transformed our nation’s political and economic thinking,” McHenry added. “Through both his domestic and international policies he renewed America’s self confidence, defeated the Soviets and taught us that each generation must provide opportunity for the next.”

McHenry claims that Reagan outranks Grant in polls of presidential scholars, President Reagan consistently outranks President Grant.

“In 2005, The Wall Street Journal conducted one such poll of bipartisan scholars which ranked President Reagan 6th and President Grant 29th,” said McHenry’s office.

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