BILL REQ. #:  H-1127.1 

Read first time 01/30/09.   Referred to Committee on Financial Institutions & Insurance.

     TO THE HONORABLE BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:
     We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:
     WHEREAS, There is an unprecedented need for Congress to pass legislation to help protect American citizens against potential, unprecedented losses in the value of take-home pay, retirement income, insurance policies, and investments due to the recent large-scale increases in the money supply by the Federal Reserve for the purpose of bailing out large corporations, loans to foreign central banks, etc., by restoring gold and silver money in accordance with the Constitution, then phasing out the Federal Reserve System and its inflationary paper money, the Federal Reserve Note; and
     WHEREAS, Our Founding Fathers were very familiar with the disastrous consequences, such as sharp price increases and the loss of wealth by most citizens, experienced by those colonies that had issued paper money not backed by gold or silver; and
     WHEREAS, Our Founding Fathers were very careful to craft a Constitution that prohibits the issuance of paper money by either the federal government or the states by including such statements as "No state shall . . . make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of debts . . . " (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 10), and only empowering the federal government "To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin . . . " (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 8); and
     WHEREAS, The U.S. Constitution designated the "dollar" as the standard of value (U.S. Constitution, Article I, Section 9, Clause 1 and the Bill of Rights, the Seventh Amendment), which was acknowledged in the federal Mint Act of 1792 to be a silver coin containing 371.25 grains (troy) of pure silver; and
     WHEREAS, Our national government's first experiment with an unbacked paper currency, the Civil War-era "greenback," led to the large-scale loss of wealth by U.S. citizens when they were paid with "greenbacks," which had only about half of the value of gold-backed notes; and
     WHEREAS, The creation of the quasi-public, independent Federal Reserve System by Congress in 1913 has led to our current monetary system of a fiat paper currency, the "Federal Reserve Note," not backed with either gold or silver since 1971; and
     WHEREAS, The Federal Reserve System created a 3,000% increase in the money supply (properly known as inflation) over the years 1959 to 2006 which led to an 89% loss in the purchasing power of our "Federal Reserve Note" paper dollars (the classic effect of inflation) during the same time period; and
     WHEREAS, The Federal Reserve System has been greatly increasing the money supply in recent years, and beginning with the financial crises of 2008, undertaking to create additional trillions of dollars out of thin air for bailouts with no end in sight, or as the New York Times for November 26, 2008, put it, "The Federal Reserve and the Treasury announced $800 billion in new lending programs on Tuesday, sending a message that they would print as much money as needed to revive the nation's crippled banking system."; and
     WHEREAS, As a result of these recent, large-scale increases in the money supply, we can expect unprecedented rounds of price increases and economic dislocations in the future, leading to unprecedented losses of the value of take-home pay, retirement income, insurance policies, and investments by most citizens, and possibly ultimate economic chaos;
     NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Congress of the United States, and particularly, the legislative delegation to Congress of the State of Washington, use all of their efforts, energies, and diligence to protect all the citizens of this nation from potential, unprecedented losses in the value of take-home pay, retirement income, insurance policies, and investments as a result of the Federal Reserve's ongoing inflation of our unbacked paper money by passing legislation (such as H.R. 2756 to repeal our nation's legal tender laws, H.R. 4683 "The Free Competition in Currency Act of 2007," and H.R. 5427 the "Tax-Free Gold Act of 2008") to help restore gold and silver money in accordance with the Constitution, then phasing out the Federal Reserve System and its inflationary paper money, the Federal Reserve Note (as in H.R. 2755).
     BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Barack Obama, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.