William Jennings Bryan lives!

Dear me. There are certainly loonies in Georgia, although possibly no more than elsewhere, but this guy is a real striver toward the upper echelons.

Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R) loves to introduce far-right reactionary bills.

[snip]

Franklin may have outdone himself with his “Constitutional Tender Act,” which would require all transactions with the state of Georgia — including the payment of taxes — to be paid with U.S. minted gold or silver coins unless the state agrees to grant a special waiver for each transaction:

Pre-1965 silver coins, silver eagles, and gold eagles shall be the exclusive medium which the state shall use to make any payments whatsoever to any person or entity, whether private or governmental. Such coins shall be the exclusive medium which the state shall accept from any person or entity as payment of any obligation to the state including, without limitation, the payment of taxes; provided, however, that such coins and other forms of currency may be used in all other transactions within the state upon mutual consent of the parties of any such transaction.

Sir? There aren’t enough gold or silver coins in the entire country for your state’s taxpayers to comply with this law were it to be enacted. The US Mint only made 39,632 one-oz. gold coins in 2008. I suspect there are more than 40,000 citizens of your state; what will those who can’t get their hands on one or two of those coins use to pay their taxes or buy their groceries or get their cars repaired? And how will the grocers and mechanics make change? There are no smaller denominations of gold coins made by the US Mint, as far as I can tell.

In a country of 308 million people there are bound to be some crazy people, and even in the subset of the crazies some are bound to be elected officials, but you, Mr. Franklin, are headed to the top.